Fresh Stinging Nettles (Don't handle with bare hands)
The Queen of Weeds
Caution when handling - these will obviously sting if handled with bare hands - use gloves or tongs to remove from packaging.
Advisable to soak in cool water for 15minutes before cooking, discard water.
The humble stinging nettle - so undervalued, unrecognised and unappreciated by the modern world - yet if there was one plant I would say is the most important to include in our spring and early summer diets, it would be this one!
If we could all grow a patch of nettles in our flower beds, or even proudly display a pot of them, in full sun on the patio - we would be all the better for it.
Suggested uses:
Nettles taste very ‘green’ a bit like a supercharged version of spinach. Due to their spines they cannot be eaten raw in a salad, but they can be cooked in exactly the same way as spinach - wilt in some olive oil/butter, steam or boil.
Some foraging chefs recommend soaking the nettles for 5-15minutes in water before cooking to remove the stinging compounds in the leaf. If you have sensitive digestion, this may be advisable.
They make a great addition to any vegetable soup.
You can add them raw to a nutrient dense smoothie (after soaking), blend them up with a cup of water, an apple, a pinch of turmeric and a tablespoon of olive or hemp oil for a vitality ‘top-up’. You could also add a dash of apple cider vinegar to this too.
They make an interesting addition to pea and mint soup, or for simplicity use them in place of spinach in any recipe.
I have come across bright green nettle cakes before - they offer a fun way of getting your children cooking with and appreciating wild plants.
Here is a recipe for nettle cake! Be sure to share your nettle cake pictures with us on IG, find us @mybiomebox
https://www.thewondersmith.com/blog/2018/3/13/nettle-cake-an-ode-to-moss-gazing
Interesting - for information purposes only
A quote taken from the RSPB website:
‘As well as being beneficial to wildlife, nettles have long running cultural significance, and can be of value to people too.
People have eaten them for centuries and they are a good source of calcium, magnesium and iron among other trace elements and vitamins. They can be used in many soups and stews instead of spinach’’ (1)
Ref:
- http://ww2.rspb.org.uk/our-work/rspb-news/news/315846-stinging-nettles-benefit-garden-wildlife#:~:text=Stinging%20nettles%20support%20more%20than,provide%20early%20food%20for%20ladybirds.