From Melarepa to me, we agree; stinging nettles are worth the trouble. They grow in damp woods and along trails just where I want to walk. Anyone who hikes West Virginia wilderness has run into this plant in the summer with bare legs and come out worse for wear. They have hollow hairs called trichomes full of histamine and other stinging stuff along the stem and the underside of the leaves. People talk about the anti-inflammatory uses for this plant, but the jury is still out on whether nettle extract offers more relief than a placebo.
The upside is, you cannot poison yourself by picking the wrong plant. No mistaking stinging nettles for something else. If it doesn’t sting, it isn’t nettles. You can see what I’m talking about if you look closely at the stems sticking out of my pot in the photo.
Melarepa was an 11th Century Buddhist yogi whose skin turned green from eating ONLY nettles. They are good, but that’s a bit over the top. The way I harvest them in spring is with scissors. I just cut the fresh shoots off, stem and all and use the scissors to wrestle the plant into my collection bag. In the full summer, I only want the leaves. I found that I can pull them off or cut them off the plant with gloves by folding the leaf in half to keep the stingers away from my skin (the stingers poke through some gloves). I’ve even put a folded up leaf, with all the stingers tucked inside, straight into my mouth and chewed it up with no bad ending. Saliva breaks down the stinging proteins before they can get you if you hide the stingers in the center of your bite and you don’t suffer from dry mouth.
I’ve had a fascination with stinging nettles for about 50 years. The first time I collected them, back in the day, I put water in a pot on the stove and stuffed in the nettles and walked away with the burner on high. I had an angry Mom to face for that. That was the first pot I burned beyond use in my cooking career. Hey, I didn’t cook it to the point that it melted into the shape of a chocolate kiss on the burner like that tea kettle my sister ruined. But, I never did taste those nettles.
More recently, I’ve managed to cook them right. I made up this amazing soup recipe I’ll share with you that my foodie friends have told me I could sell. I’m not up for that, so you get the recipe for free.
Nettle Soup Recipe
INGREDIENTS
- 1 cup chopped onions
- Half ounce of whole ramps (2-3 ramps) chopped or one garlic clove, minced
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 3/4 teaspoon ground coriander
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- About 7 ounces (3/4 cup) peeled potato chopped into 1/2 inch cubes
- 3 teaspoons *seasoned vegetable Better than Bullion
- 3-4 ounces of nettles (weigh before washing – may be closer to 7 ounces after washing)
- 3 cups water
- Pumpkin seeds for garnish (optional)
- Wash nettles. I didn’t the last time. I picked them clean and it was fine. I don’t mind a little bug or two but I swear I didn’t see any. I wouldn’t worry about the exact weight of the nettles. I’ve used more than this and it’s still great.
- Cook onion and ramp mixture (or garlic) in 2 tablespoons butter in a 4- to 5-quart heavy pot over moderately low heat, stirring, until softened, 3 to 5 minutes. Add coriander, salt, and pepper and cook, stirring, 1 minute. Stir in potato, nettles, bullion and water and bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer, covered, until potato is very tender (about 10 minutes).
- Purée soup in a blender until smooth, then blend remaining tablespoon butter.
- Taste. This needs no additional seasoning in my opinion. But, you be the judge because I’m not into lots of salt. Add salt or pepper to taste. *Note, if you didn’t use Better than Bullion, you will need to seriously adjust the salt.
- I love to garnish this green soup with sour cream and an edible flower (violet, pansy, nasturtium). It works will with nuts as a garnish too (see photo).
You can eat that? 