Written by Mully Mullally
Here are some hands on (ouch, not your “hands on” the nettles) techniques for gathering and eating nettles (originally taught by Kumudini Shoba at a Learning from the Land class in March, 2009)
To gather nettles, first get out your favorite basket or bag, your gardening or thick warm gloves, and your scissors. Now find a spot in your woods, or yard where the nettles are growing. Nettles are best used for food when they are first coming up in the spring. Once the stems have started to elongate, they are starting to flower and aren’t so good.
For soups, salads and drying you want to pick the top leaves of the plant. The plants will be 4″ to 8″ above the ground. Pick the leaf bud at the top of the plant and include the next two to four leaves down the stem of the plant. You can use scissors to cut the top of the plant off, or you may pinch off this part of the plant. Let the nettles sit overnight, or blanch or steam them to remove the formic acid.
Some nettles are dark reddish purple and some are lighter green. Either type of nettle is fine and good to eat. The purpler the top leaves, the more iron the nettle has.
For healing teas, just pick the top leaves of the nettle, the most potent part of the plant. Pour boiling water over the nettles, and let steep for 5 minutes. You’ll notice that the tea is slightly purple. That is the formic acid from the stinging hairs of the nettle! You can pour that off, or drink it. Then pour more hot water over the leaves, and the tea will be greener, and less sharp. You can do a third pour over the leaves for more tea. The tea nettles can then also be used in cooking.
If you want to cultivate a small patch of nettles for your on-going use into the summer, pick/cut the individual plants for your immediate use, but also trim the stems closer to the ground. Then come back in a few weeks to see if they have started to grow back, producing more of the early spring-type nettle. Watch and pick again and repeat….Now that you have a bunch of nettles you are ready to try the recipes below.
Mully’s “tis the Season” Nettle Soup
Pick your basket of nettles and prepare…removing bugs, washing, trimming (I usually trim all the leaves off the stems and just use the tops and leaves without the stems.) Let stand overnight or choose the blanch or steam method of removing the formic acid.
Chop one large firm onion, and several cloves of garlic. Place in your soup pot with 2 tbs of oil, and saute. Add small quantity of water so that the onions can simmer and get soft. Turn off heat and cool.
Take six medium size potatoes, clean and chop. Cook in a separate pot in 6 cups of water. Bring to a boil and cook until tender/soft. Skim off any frothy potato water, and remove from heat.
Now you are going to combine ingredients. Add the potatoes and water to your onion and garlic mixture, and bring to a boil. Add your mound of nettles. They will take up a lot of room in your pot. I do small quantities at a time. Keep stirring them in. If you have steamed them first do not add that water to your soup. Now let this mixture cook until nettles are tender. Remove from heat and cool.
Now comes the transformation of ingredients into GREEN soup.
Using your mixing wand, blend all ingredients together in your soup pot. If you have a blender you will have to devise a more intricate process for pouring smaller quantities of soup into your blender, transferring the blended material into a bowl, and then repeat. When blending is completed return the whole mixture into your pot.
Now earlier on you could add salt and other seasonings, or at this point as well. A word of caution, your soup may need thinning. I recommend using water for this purpose. I used vegetable stock in one batch and it changed the color to a more brownish green, so not quite as bright and pretty.
Some folks add a dollop of yogurt or sour cream when they serve their soup.
ENJOY!!! And let us know your “feed back” and variations.
Kumudini’s Quinoa Salad
Chop or Mince and STEAM your nettles
Chop tomatoes, slice lemons, and cook quinoa.
In a bowl place your quinoa, and olive oil, and Dr. Braggs (if you enjoy that flavor) and then add your nettles and tomatoes. Squeeze some of your
lemons into the bowl, and leave the remainder of slices as a garnish and for your family and guests to use themselves. Mix… let set for a while so all the flavors have a chance to blend a settle, and then ENJOY.
Using dried nettles:
Dry nettles on a clean sheet, and give them space for air flow around the leaves. The little stinging needles will collapse and release the formic acid, so wash the sheet before you use it again! After you have dried your nettles, and stored them in glass jars, Kumudini suggests that you can use up to a teaspoon per person per day.
Here are some ways to incorporate them into your diet:
Add to your pasta dishes, especially lasagna, strata, and other layered recipes. Green macaroni and cheese if that is your children’s favorite color, or you are Irish.
Add nettle powder to your masa tortillas and make your Mexican enchiladas green.
Add some to your shortbread recipes and turn your cookies green….maybe for St. Patrick’s day.
Chuck Ploof’s Nettle Pesto Recipe
6 cups of fresh washed nettles
1/2 cup olive oil
3-4 cloves pressed garlic
1/2 cup grated parmesan
1/2 cup toasted nuts…pine nuts, walnuts, hazelnuts, probably any nut
salt and pepper to taste
Blanch the nettles about two minutes. 6 cups fresh nettles make about 3 cups blanched nettles
Process everything in a blender or food processor until the texture you like.
Adjust texture with olive oil to your liking.
Good Cheer Nettle Pesto
4 cups packed fresh nettles (rougher stems discarded)
1/2 cup oil (olive and/or canola)
1/2 cup walnuts, pecans or pine nuts
6 cloves of garlic, unpeeled
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 cup parmesan or asiago cheese, grated
Salt, pepper, and lemon juice to taste
* Lightly toast the nuts in a skillet over a low heat until slightly browned and aromatic. Remove from heat, allow to cool, and then roughly chop.
* Heat the unpeeled garlic cloves in the skillet until browned on the outside and slightly softened (it’s easy to burn, so be very attentive and careful). Remove these from heat, cool, and then peel and chop.
* Boil the nettles briefly (1 –2 minutes) in plenty of water. Drain and cool.
* Combine nettles, and all the garlic, nuts, and oil in a food processor and blend well.
* Finally, stir in the grated cheese and season with salt, pepper and lemon juice to taste.
Enjoy!