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we are going to have to hand pull alot of nettles in our two small fields - so thought - if I do it now when they are nice and new and tender - then they would be good to eat.

so please - can I have your best nettle recipes!

Hi Red, here is a couple that spring to mind,
In early Spring, the whole shoot can be picked when they are 3 to 4 inches high. In late Spring, pick only the tops and young leaves (wear gloves). After the beginning of summer, nettles should not be picked for consumption as they become coarse, bitter and slightly laxative.


Spring Soup
You need:

1 lb potatoes
8 oz young nettles
2 oz butter
1 1/2 pints chicken stock
Sea salt and black pepper
4 tbspns sour cream



Method:

Peel the potatoes and cut them in thick slices.
Wash the nettles and chop them coarsly.
Cook the potatoes for 10 minutes in salted water; drain.
Melt the butter in a saucepan, add the nettles and simmer gently for 10 minutes.
Heat the stock.
Add the parboiled potatoes and the stock, bring to the boil and simmer for another 10 minutes.
When all is soft, cool slightly then puree in a blender or food processor.
Return soup to a clean pan, add salt and pepper to taste and stir in the sour cream.

Brotchan Roy (Nettle and Oat Broth)
Serves 4 as a main meal

You need:

3 oz young nettles
8 oz leeks
4 oz smoked bacon
1/2 oz bacon fat or pork dripping
2 oz rolled oats
1 1/2 pints well flavoured stock
4 tblspns chopped chives
Freshly ground black pepper
Salt if necessary



Method:

Wash and chop the nettles and leeks.
Finely chop the bacon.
Melt the bacon fat or dripping in a saucepan on a moderate heat.
Put in the bacon, brown it and remove it.
Mix in the rolled oats and stir until they brown.
Pour in the stock and bring it to the boil.
Return the bacon to the pan and add the nettles, leeks and chives.
Season well with the pepper.
Cover and simmer the broth for 45 minutes.
Taste before serving and add salt if necessary.
It is a thick, tasty soup.


Robin

I will be trying this once it stops snowing long enough for me to pick the nettles.

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstalls Nettle and sheeps cheese tart

Prepare and bake a 20cm diameter shortcrust pastry tart shell. Blanch about 250g washed nettle tops in boiling water for 2 mins. Remove and refresh in a large bowl of iced water. Drain, squeeze out excess water then roughly chop the nettles. Melt a good knob of butter in a pan over a medium heat, add one large finely sliced onion, a pinch of dried chilli flakes, and 2 finely chopped cloves of garlic. Soften gently in the butter then add to the chopped nettles and season with lemon juice, salt, pepper and nutmeg. Spoon the mixture into the pastry case and top with 100g grated hard sheeps cheese*. Combine 2 eggs and 2 egg yolks with 200ml double cream and season to taste. Pour over the nettle mixture and bake at 180C/Gas mark 4 for 30 mins or until just set.

Yum

* I am sure any strong cheese would do but I got some Yorkshire Feta from my local farmers market so will be trying that. I will let you know how it turns out.

ooo sounding good

Yoiu can also steep them in water and use as a plant feed very good apparently

Nettle beer
somewhere around here there is a receipe for it

or you could let them grow big and then ret them until the fibre comes loose and then spin it into a kind of soft linen-like yarn which you can weave into a denim-like cloth and make yourself a pair of jeans. or make fishing nets, string bags or macrame pot-hangers.
but be careful eating them. after a while of eating it regularly it weakens your bladder, and you could become temporarily a bit incontinent. i speak from personal experience.
wyverne

Maybe I'm just really odd but I just steam them and serve them with a salad. They're brimming with nutrients.

If I'm feeling glitzy then I sprinkle in a little tamari or soya sauce and saute them with onions.

Trinity
x

Thought you may want to see how the sheeps cheese and nettle tart turned out.





And it tastes pretty good.

ohh it looks good!

That tart looks deliciuos does!
I thought it was pizza at first, but now it looks more like a quiche. What does it taste like?

I've only eaten nettles twice - the first time i wrapped a chicken breast in them and roasted it. it was quite tasty.
The second, i had nettle soup and it was horrible!! it was really bitter and soily tasting, and really gritty.

Any nettle-picking tips you can share to help me get the right size ones?

WOW! The tart looks awesome!

It tasted like nettles with cheese :). Very distinctive flavour.

I picked the tops of the nettles - top 4 or 6 leaves. If you include the stalks then it will be gritty - leaves only.

I've made nettle risotto before - pretty simple. Also made a nettle and wild garlic soup this year which was very good in deed. However, I also tried to make a nettle cordial which frankly just tasted of sugar and nothing else. I guess I'll wait for the elderflower for that instead.

Can definitely recomend making a plant feet with them. My pumpkins loved it last year.

Tara

well - we tried eating nettles and thought they were disgusting.. so .. not for us I guess

tell me more about the feed? what plants want it?