Stinging Nettles Recipe

I have a patch of Nettles and hear they are great to eat if caught early enough in the spring which is right now. Does anyone have a good recipe for their use?

I mainly use them to make a liquid feed but I really want to have a go at making nettle beer.



paul

Thanks for the great video - you make it seem simple!

Anyone know any recipes for eating nettles?

I've eaten them thrown into an omelet or quiche.

The simple way is to think of them as a spinach substitute. For obvious reasons it's advisable to stick to dishes that that will be cooked, or that use cooked spinach. I've also heard that they can substitute for kale.

You can keep harvesting nettles through the year if they are growing in a shady place and you periodically cut sections of your patch down to ground level. The fresh shoots should spring up and be tasty like new spring growth... shaded leaves grow larger, less tough and more juicy.

Personally I have only ever eaten them raw and not bothered collecting to cook them.

We just pick some, boil briefly, then top with butter and salt.

Dillon Nichols wrote:I've eaten them thrown into an omelet or quiche.

The simple way is to think of them as a spinach substitute. For obvious reasons it's advisable to stick to dishes that that will be cooked, or that use cooked spinach. I've also heard that they can substitute for kale.

I have a friend who uses them in an onion dip. Yummy. Just steam for a minute, chop, and add to your favorite recipe!

Nettle soup is great and very filling. I use chicken or rabbit broth, a few potatoes, onions (or leeks) and oil. 1/2 cup dry nettles or 3 cups fresh. Brown the chopped/diced potatoes, onions and any other vegetable (like carrot) in the oil until they begin to soften (about 10 minutes). Add 1 pint of stock (you could probably use water, but it wouldn't be as rich tasting) and let it simmer another 10 minutes until the potato is soft. Stir in the nettles and cook for 1 or two minutes. If you have a blender whir the whole mixture til blended. If not, try using a potato masher. I use dried nettles and grind them up in my mortar and pestle, then mash the whole thing with hand mixer or a potato masher. It is nice with some cream drizzled over. You could substitute rice for the potatoes.

As a side note, since my husband and I have been drinking a cup of nettle tea every morning, our desire for cheese as disappeared. Since that wasn't our intent, it was a nice added surprise. We don't have(nor want) cows, sheep or goats (just rabbits and chickens), so getting cheese has always been a sticking point in our daily stroll to self-sufficiency. Now if I can find something to satisfy my dark chocolate craving;^)

I love stinging nettles, one of my favorite plants in the world. After teaching thousands of people of wild food, etc, and discussing nettles with them, I find that people tend to over mystify them in how they are used. Like any food, there are lots of amazing dishes that can be made with them, and they are of course preferred my many fancy chefs. I find that I tend to do two things to them:

1. put them in a green smoothie. The blending action destroys the sting, and you can get the amazing raw nutrition.
2. Steam them until the sting goes away and them chop them up really fine and add them to whatever else you are eating. Rice, taco meat, spaghetti, anything really.

I make nettles into tea. In the spring I go for a walk down the river avon and pick the lightest green leaves, the new growth, and then wash (important especially if it's a public footpath) and freeze them later that day. By the time I've walked home all the stings have degraded so I can make a cup straight away if I want. I make the tea with four or six leaves in a strainer, and add a little honey if you like. It's supposed to be good for hayfever sufferers (as is honey) which I am, but it tastes great too.

I had my 10 year daughter harvest some nettle leaves on Sunday. We cooked them up with avocado oil and garlic. We added some extra water to get a steam effect. We all loved them, including my two 8 year old girls.

I also used them in nettle and goat cheese frittata and keep some dried ones to added to soups and such.

My rabbits like them to after the wilt a bit.

I hate to touch them but am willing to try then cooked .
timley subject as I find baby plants hard to ID and I had just taken this photo Is this the edible nettles I googled the plant nettles, but was not sure from the photos one plant that came up I know was lamium so I figure I should check

it certainly looks like nettles to me, although the tips look a bit more rounded than the ones I usually come across. Maybe it's just the angle of the camera though.