Nettle soup

[Fungus]

Nothing really specific about the recipe but this is how I did it;
Pick new nettle leaves with gloves - not the older ones, and collect a good large bowlful ..
Drench them in water for a while then drain the water away, this gets rid of the stings so they're ok to handle ..
For the actual cooking;

Melt a good lump of margarine into a pan, then chop up a small onion and fry until soft, then add a small potato chopped up into small bits ..
Once that's all soft, add the nettles in, letting them soften up for a couple minutes ..
Then add a cup or two of vegetable stock, and slowly add that in, while adding 2 tablespoons of flour slowly to thicken out, soy milk can also be added..
Simmer for 5-10 minutes then blend up into a smooth liquid.. then serve

Makes 2-3 bowls of soup .. amounts can be adjusted pretty easily though.

Just did it today and it tastes great, nettles are supposedly a good source of calcium, magnesium, iron, potassium, zinc, Vitamin A/B/C/D/K, protein too ..

[RubyDuby]

nettle recipe here too.

[Risker]

I'd love to try nettle soup but I'm yet to find some nettles that aren't swarming with aphids

[Corum]

They taste better than spinach! Best to pick them in early May, that way there aren't any aphids on the leaves. Also, you don't have to soak them in water. We found a recipe on the River Cottage site IIRC.

[Hemlock]

You can eat the stalks as well but they do make the soup very fibrous and a bit gritty, I prefer stripping the nettles off the stalks first (using rubber washing up gloves).
Next time I'll strip the leaves off the stalks straight into a large basin full of water, swish them about to get rid of aphids/bits and then drain and into the pan.