Nourishing Nettle Soup

Nourishing Nettle Soup

I love spring for so many reasons. The scents of the bursting blooms, daphne, jasmine, boronia to name a few, and the gorgeous green edible goodness that rushes up from the earth, especially the edible weeds! Nettle is one of my most favoured edible herbs (or weeds). It’s vibrant, nourishing and absolutely delicious!

The Nettle that is yummy to eat in soups and stews is a different variety to the medicinal nettle you might find in your herbal tea, tablet, or tincture. It’s much less fibrous for starters which means it blends up nicely in a green soup. Many of the nutritional qualities are similar though, but the medicinal nettle (Urtica Dioica) will be a bit stronger.

Nettle is very nutrient dense and provides essential vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients. It is rich in iron, calcium, manganese, magnesium, vitamin K, carotenoids, and protein. Some of its qualities include anti-proliferative, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, analgesic, immunological stimulatory, anti-infectious, hypotensive, anti-ulcer, and cardiovascular disease prevention (ref https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9253158/#bib81).

For more information on the health benefits of humble yet potent nettle check out Herbs with Rosalee for a lovely informative and concise summary https://www.herbalremediesadvice.org/ rosemary-gladstar-nettles.html

Nettle has a long traditional use as wild vegetable and if you know where to look, you will be rewarded by its delightful and nourishing goodness. Watch out for the stinger though, best to wear gloves when harvesting and work slowly and mindfully to avoid getting a sting or two. When wildcrafting herbs in general, find a good “clean” source, away from roadsides.

Harvest fresh in the spring before flowering. It’s Urtica Urens, or small nettle, that you want for making soup, not Urtica Dioica as this more medicinal strain of nettle is much more fibrous (and a bit less yummy – great for tea though). Cut the stems of your nettle and take them home in a basket or bag, give them a wash and then trim the leaves off the stem into your soup (or smoothie). I usually use scissors to trim them. If you put too much stem in your soup, it will be quite fibrous and take away from the lovely creamy texture of this soup (fair warning 😉 ). Remember to always wear gloves when handling raw nettle. Once cooked (or blended) the fine hair like protrusions that cause the sting break down and are no longer able to sting.

Nettle Soup Recipe (Urtica Urens)

Serves 4

Ingredients:

• Nettle leaf, a few big handfuls

• 1 onion (or the green of 1-2 leek if you are low FODMAP)

• 1 medium sized potato

• Splash of olive oil

• Any other green herbal weeds or green veg that you’d like to throw in (I’ll often throw in chickweed, a little dandelion green (not too much, just a few leaves), kale, silver beet, zucchini, parsley, thyme etc)

• Salt and pepper to taste

Method:

1. Brown your onion in the olive oil, trim nettle leaves into the saucepan while browning, give it a stir and add diced potato and any other green veg you may have on hand.
2. Add water to cover, salt and pepper and simmer until the potato is soft.
3. Let cool and blend with a stick blender until smooth and creamy.
4. Serve with some toasted seeds and nuts, a dollop of yogurt and a squeeze of lemon.