As Green As It Gets – Nettle soup

A velvety, vegan soup from freshly foraged nettles – it really doesn’t get much greener than this one.

Nettles seem to be taking over some of the places we like to walk. Not necessarily a bad thing, as they provide an excellent bug-shelter (most birds avoid the stingy plants). And the actually do a great job keeping people from trampling nature too.
Moreover, if done with care, you can forage them to add some pure nature to your soups, teas and smoothies. Nettles contain vitamins and minerals, as you might expect from any leafy green, making them a healthy addition too.

Responsible Foraging

When going out and about picking things, there are a few things you need to keep in mind:

• Only pick where there’s an abundance
• Leave plenty behind
• Don’t damage nature – don’t squash plants to reach others, don’t take whole plants, be mindful of nests
• Be sure you know what you pick (and not something poisonous that just happens to look similar)
• Make sure you’re not picking somebody’s property

In case of nettles, you may want to bring gardening gloves, to prevent burns.
Only pick the top two or three leaves. These are the tastiest and this way the plant will continue to grow without problems.
Leave flowering nettles. You only want the leaves; nature has better plans for the flowers and seeds.

You can read more about foraging here.

Nettle Soup

You can actually add a few leaves to almost any soup, but here we’re talking about a full-on nettle soup. There are still several options for those, but we’ve opted for a wonderfully creamy and easy-to-like version – the kids loved it too. Wonderful light meal with some freshly baked bread. (We’re a bit fan of the no-knead ones, though they do take a bit of planning. Check here for a recipe, and replace the pumpkin with finely chopped red onion and walnut, for example.)

Ingredients:

• 200gr nettle leaves
• 1-2 onions
• 1-2 potatoes
• 1-2 garlic cloves (if you happen upon some wild garlic while foraging, use that!)
• 1.5 litre vegetable stock
• 200 ml soy cream
• Oil
• Salt and pepper to taste

Method:

1. Wash your nettles leaves (to protect your hands from stings, you can wear gloves or put your hands in whatever piece of plastic packaging you happen to have around; bread bags, cereal ones …).
2. Chop your onion(s if they’re small) and sauté in a bit of oil.
3. Add crushed garlic (or chopped wild garlic).
4. Add peeled and cut potato, stock, and lastly, the nettles.
5. Boil for about 15 minutes, until the potato is cooked through.
6. Puree with a stick blender, or work through a food processor.
7. Add cream, salt and pepper.

And that’s it. Easy as that.

Apart from a tasty soup with free healthy veg, this can be a fun activity and a nice way to get kids involved in both nature and their diet too.
Why not head out this half-term to let them get those nettles before they start to bloom?

Should you not have enough nettles around for a pot full of soup, you can always try nettle tea.
Should you have too much, you can leave them to dry and use as herb or tea later on.

Enjoy and let us know your favourite nettle recipe in the comments!