Seeking nettle recipes

Hmmm
Thanks for the warnings

Hello there. I am new to Nettling. And have gathered some wonderful information and recipes here. But I do have a question. I tend to dry large amounts in my oven. At around 195 most of the time. My question: how hot should my oven temp be to dry my nettles and neutralize the formic acid?

Rhonda Uhrich wrote: how hot should my oven temp be to dry my nettles and neutralize the formic acid?

Since nettles don't sting at all when dry, even when dried at room temperature, I don't think the oven temperature will be important. It might be that the needles go soft, rather than the acid neutralised though.

I blanche nettles and then form them into balls, squeeze out the water, and flash freeze them. Then I take them out and sautee them.

I have a friend who collects nettles and freezes them in the Spring and that is his main green for the entire year.

Blanching and boiling then draining nettles has me wondering….

Nettle tea is pretty nutritious, seems like blanching and such would allow those nutrients and minerals to escape into the water.  If you use the water in broth , or drink it, no loss but if it gets thrown away, there might be a significant loss.

I make a glycerite out of stinging nettles. You could make the medicine with alcohol, such as vodka, if you wanted.  I cook them lightly to take out the sting, then stuff them in a mason jar for about a month with glycerine.  Then I pour out the medicine. I also put in some mint, because I like the flavor better that way.  It's a good nutritional tonic.

JohN S
PDX OR

I'm going to leave a series of links here to one of my favorite websites for both wild and nose to tail eating. Just nettle recipes today, but not all of them. There are lots of good ones.

https://honest-food.net/nettle-risotto-recipe/
https://honest-food.net/nettle-soup/
https://honest-food.net/nettle-pesto/
https://honest-food.net/nettle-pasta/

I cannot vouch for all of the above, but there is nothing of Hank's I wouldn't try if all the other mouths in the house were more amenable to things like fish. I can say that Spring hasn't happened in my house until we've made the brightest green pasta you've ever seen!

And generally, any recipe that calls for spinach or another green leafy vegetable can have nettles sub in. MY kids would have me add in ALWAYS blanch the nettles first, even if you're putting them in a soup. I once made a garlic ginger chicken soup, and added the nettles straight to the pot. The soup nibbled back. Not a huge sting of discomfort, but not fun for the littles either.

Nettles are my favorite leafy green. I love the umami that they bring to bear, I love the color, I love their prickly nature and the education I get to share when I tell people that we had stinging nettle (fill in the blank) for dinner, and yes, my kids eat it, and no, it isn't a health hazard.

I also love that pheasant back mushrooms (easy beginner wild mushroom, no deadly lookalikes) are frequently found in the same locations and at the same times, at least in my neck of the woods. We've had many a stroganoff with pheasant backs over green nettle noodles.

We are also quite fond of using dried nettles as an herbal tea that reduces seasonal allergy symptoms. Nettles have some antihistamines built in, it seems.

I make nettle soup with potatoes, onion and a vegetable stock cub

I pick the shoot with top 4 leaves,  I have a bowl full clean water, I swish the shoot in clean water to clean it then I remove the individual leaves and shoots and throw the stem away. I also chop up the leaves and put them to one side
Add one table spoon of olive oil to a pan,
one finely chopped onion fry until translucent add chopped potatoes cook for 3 min then add the chopped nettles and mix until they are limp, add hot water and the stock cube and cook until the potato is soften.

I made beans with stinging nettle today.  I think there was more stinging nettle than beans.  It was quite bland at first. I always add cumin to beans. These were pintos.  I added some lemon juice and kim chi and it helped. Also plain yogurt and homemade worcestershire sauce.  What it really needed was some olive oil and soy sauce. It was a good meal, but not until I added the olive oil.  

I would like to remind people to rinse the stinging nettle before eating it.  It's hard to rinse it before cooking it, because it might be painful.   It was slightly gritty.  Lots of minerals?

John S
PDX OR

We love stinging nettle smoothies.  Mostly I just blend nettles, a banana, frozen pineapple and water.  My kids love them.

I also like to make nettle seasoning -- dried nettles, salt, pepper, dried ramps, whatever else seems fun.

Rhonda Uhrich wrote:Hello there. I am new to Nettling. And have gathered some wonderful information and recipes here. But I do have a question. I tend to dry large amounts in my oven. At around 195 most of the time. My question: how hot should my oven temp be to dry my nettles and neutralize the formic acid?

Where I live in the Indian Himalayas, nettles are just air dried, and they largely lose the sting. I can buy them as local wild foraged products but these need a bit of picking through to remove bits of grass blades and tough nettle stems. I find that handling and picking through the dried nettles doesn't sting. When I've sorted a large quantity, picking through with bare fingers for like 30 minutes, I do get a mild stinging or warm sensation.

I air dry nettles that I pick myself (cleaner and younger than what I can buy). I use gloves to pick them and rinse well (because their texture catches dust and my climate is dusty). Then I shake the water off and spread on trays in a well ventilated place. In this desert climate, they dry without a special dehydrator machine.

Rhonda,
I am assuming you are referring to Fahrenheit temperature.  195 is almost boiling, and that temperature will cook the nettles.  There’s nothing particularly wrong with cooking them, ( they make great saag panir, and in lasagna) but I think they might be more nutritious “raw”  dehydrated.

There seems to be a divide among nettlers, over whether compounds in nettles need to be deactivated or cooked, and cooked nettles pressed and drained . I am of the belief that raw nettles are superior to rinsed and or deactivated.

I saw someone pick a raw leaf and put it directly into his mouth and chew it up and swallow it.  I do that too now.  The little spines are only on one side of the leaf, and if you look closely, it’s possible to fold the leaf spine sides facing and inside the fold, you can just eat them.  If they’re young and fresh, it’s s wonderful flavor.  And as with all plants, if picked after a few hours of sunshine, the brix will be up,(the plant uses the sugars overnight, it’s a daily cycle) and they will be sweeter.

Fresh nettle leaves are also great in smoothies.

No recipe here per se, but back when we could get nettles, I often used smoked paprika with them.  The smoked paprika comes in those little rectangular cans, not cheap but it's a strong flavor that you can use sparingly with a lot of things.