Nettle soup
Nettle soup
Get your gloves on to forage for wild plants like nettles - once cooked they have a spinach or cabbage flavour
- Prep: 20 mins
Cook: 30 mins - Serves 6
- Easy
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
- 1 onion, chopped
- 1 carrot, diced
- 1 leek, washed and finely sliced
- 1 large floury potato (Maris Piper or similar), thinly sliced
- 1l vegetable stock
- 400g stinging or dead nettles, washed, leaves picked (see tips below)
- 50g butter, diced
- 50ml double cream
Dead nettles
This is a different plant from the stinger,
but gets its name because, although
the leaves look the same, they don’t
sting. They have either white or purple
edible flowers, and can be cooked in
the same way as stingers.
Stinging nettles
These grow in abundance and are best
eaten before they flower in late May.
Wear gloves to save yourself getting
stung – I find that a pair of washing-up
gloves gives you lots of control over
your picking, as well as shielding the top
of your arms if you’re in a T-shirt. Wash
the nettles well before cooking.
Method
-
Heat the oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat. Add the onion, carrot, leek and potato, and cook for 10 mins until the vegetables start to soften. Add the stock and cook for a further 10-15 mins until the potato is soft.
-
Add the nettle leaves, simmer for 1 min to wilt, then blend the soup. Season to taste, then stir in the butter and cream. Serve the soup drizzled with extra oil and scattered with dead nettle flowers, if you have them.
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