Nettle Recipes

Nettles taste really good and are very healthy - an essential (and tasty) part of any spring diet. Pick the young leaves wearing rubber gloves or a plastic bag over your hand and give them a good wash. Boil or steam them for just a minute or so, then use as spinach.

Nettle Pancakes
Make a thick pancake batter (wholewheat flour, milk, baking powder and oil - no need for eggs), leave to rest. Steam or boil the nettles, then shred and allow to cool. Put the nettles in the batter and make thick pancakes. Delicious with curry or stew.

Nettle Soup                                      Serves 4        Total cost approx 60p
2 potatoes
1 large onion
2 handfuls of nettles

10 wild garlic leaves
Olive oil, salt & pepper 

1 vegetable stock cube
cream to serve

Peel & chop onion, potatoes and sweat in olive oil.  Trim stems of nettle and wild garlic, wash well and add to pan.  Make up stock cube with 1 litre of water.  Boil rapidly for 15 mins until potatoes are cooked then liquidize, return to pot, season then serve with swirl of cream

Nettles and Black Eyed Beans (Cypriot Dish)
1 cup black eyed beans soaked and almost cooked.  When almost soft drain off most of the cooking water and add 4 cups of nettles and cook for a last 5 mins.  Drain off any excess water then dress with olive oil and lemon juice and season.  Proportions do not matter that much.

Nettle & Wild Garlic Ciabatta                   Serves 4-6         Total cost approx 50p
500g strong white bread flour
3tbs virgin olive oil
1 tsp salt
1 tsp quick yeast
300ml warm water
1 tsp sugar
2 cups nettle tops / leaves
a handful wild garlic leaves (or 1 clove garlic crushed)

Wash and chop nettles and garlic, sweat in 1 of the 3 tbsp olive oil then leave to cool.
Put flour in a large bowl and mix in dry ingredients ie sugar, dried yeast and salt.
Add warm water and olive oil, nettles and garlic and mix well. 
Cover the bowl with a plate and leave to rise for 3 hours. 
Gently scrape the dough out onto a floured work surface. Divide into 4. Gently pull each piece out into a rectangle. Then fold the top edge into the middle, Press the seam down. Fold the bottom edge into the middle and press seam down. Fold in half and press seam down to form a long flat sausage.

Leave to rise somewhere warm for 30 mins on a floured flat baking tray.

Put a dish containing about 1cm deep water in the bottom of your oven when you put it on to heat and leave it in. This is to create steam in the oven to help the bread rise. 
Bake in an oven pre-heated to 220°C, 425°F, Mark 7 for 30 minutes.

Stinging Nettle and Potato Cakes 

1 large Potato, peeled and grated                      200g Self Raising Flour

4 free-range Eggs                                             100ml Milk

Bowl of Stinging Nettle leaves                           Nutmeg

1 Lemon                                                           Maldon salt, black pepper
50g Butter                                                         Olive Oil 

Firstly we need to wilt the Stinging Nettles and destroy the sting, so place the Stinging Nettle leaves in a pan place a heat under them and then add a little Olive Oil and a splash of hot water from the kettle, wilt the Stinging Nettles and cook for 5 minutes gently stirring. Remove from the heat and allow to cool. 
Next prepare the potato by peeling and grating it. Place the grated potato, flour, eggs, and milk into a bowl and mix until well combined, you are after a consistency that is firm but will fall off a spoon. 
When the Stinging Nettles have cooled enough to be handled, gently squeeze any liquid from them. Run a knife through the leaves to break them up an little and then add them along with a grating of Nutmeg to the potato mixture. Stir until well combined. Season generously. 
To cook heat the butter and oil in a frying pan. Using your hands create palm sized patties and gently fry until golden brown on both sides. This mix should make 4 good sized cakes. 
To serve, stack the spinach and potato cakes onto a serving plate and squeeze over the lemon juice... If you do make the little ones for parties, make a spicy little dipping sauce too, they are lovely

 

Seasonal Recipe: Nettle and Wild Garlic Soup (serves 10 ish) 
1 rectangular veg. stall wicker basket full of young nettle tops. (wash well) - or between 500g- 1kg 
1 large leek (roughly chopped) 
2 medium sized onions (roughly chopped) 
2 very large potatoes (peeled and chopped quite small) 
1-2 cloves of garlic (chopped/crushed) 
vegetable stock to taste (cube/powder etc) 
3 pints water 
2.5 pints milk 
4 bunches (of approx 50gs) wild garlic (Alliun ursinum) (finely chopped) 
a little olive oil 
cream (single or double) 
salt and pepper 
a few garlic mustard leaves for garnish (Alliaria petiolata) 

Place all ingredients in a large saucepan except the cream, 1 bunch of the wild garlic and 1 pint of the milk. Bring to the boil and simmer for about 20 minutes, then liquidize. Also, liquidize the remaining pint of milk with the chopped wild garlic. Swirl some of this and a little cream into the soup once you have put it in a bowl. Garnish with a couple of garlic mustard leaves - only a couple though, as this is the food plant of the beautiful Orange Tip butterfly's caterpillar.

 

Wild Salad

Lime Leaves 
Hairy Bittercress 
Common Sorrell 
Dandelion Leaves
Hawthorn Leaves 
Tansy Leaves 
Selection of Wild Flowers such as Sweet Violet, Dandelion and Wild Primrose to garnish

 

I am not going to tell you how to make a salad, so chop it up however you like it. The flavours of this salad are strong so dress it lightly, if at all. After the salad is dressed sprinkle over a selection of edible wild flowers, I use wild primrose, sweet violet and I pull the petals out of dandelions to add soft shards of yellow throughout the salad, but hey you can use what you find or prefer!

….. Oh, please remember only the youngest leaves, you want tender light leaves for a salad!!