Nettle soup

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alan refail
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Here's our tried and often tested recipe:

Nettle Soup
25 g butter
1 medium onion finely chopped
2 garlic cloves crushed
400 g potatoes peeled and finely chopped
450 g freshly picked nettle tops (about a supermarket plastic bag full
1 litre vegetable or chicken or ham stock
150 ml double cream
Grated nutmeg
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

serves 4-6

Melt butter and cook onion and garlic gently for 10 mins in a covered saucepan, without browning. Add potatoes and nettles and cook for 2 minutes. Add stock, cover, bring to the boil and simmer for 15 minutes. Cool a little then puree in a liquidiser. Return to pan, stir in cream and season to taste. Reheat gently and serve.

We reckon this is the taste of spring and a great revitaliser after the dark days.

Make and enjoy.

Alan

p.s. we in Wales call nettles danadl or (a better warning) dail poethion- hot leaves. You will know to wear gloves when picking and washing them :!:
Cred air o bob deg a glywi, a thi a gei rywfaint bach o wir (hen ddihareb Gymraeg)
Believe one tenth of what you hear, and you will get some little truth (old Welsh proverb)
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alan refail
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And an even tastier one. Go on, give it a try.

Nettle and Wild Garlic Soup

4 oz nettle shoots (a carrier bagful)
2 oz wild garlic leaves
1 oz butter
1 medium onion chopped fine
1 medium potato peeled and quartered
1 pint good chicken stock (not a cube)
grated nutmeg, salt and pepper and double cream to taste

1 Wash nettles and wild garlic (wear rubber gloves!). Put to drain in a colander.
2 Cook onion gently in butter till soft but not coloured
3 Add nettles, wild garlic and potatoes and stir until leaves wilted
4 Add stock and simmer for fifteen minutes
5 Liquidise, keeping potato pieces till the end so that soup may be to your desired thickness
6 Return to saucepan, add nutmeg, seasoning to taste and double cream to taste. Heat through and serve.

Serves 2
Cred air o bob deg a glywi, a thi a gei rywfaint bach o wir (hen ddihareb Gymraeg)
Believe one tenth of what you hear, and you will get some little truth (old Welsh proverb)
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alan refail
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Looks like I've got a thread all to myself :!: If you don't try this, I'll keep bringing it to the top of the list. Seriously, it is good.

Alan
Cred air o bob deg a glywi, a thi a gei rywfaint bach o wir (hen ddihareb Gymraeg)
Believe one tenth of what you hear, and you will get some little truth (old Welsh proverb)
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Primrose
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Have been looking for some nice young nettles Alan but the only places round here where there are good crops are along the side of favourite footpaths for doggie walkers and judging by the number of turds on display, I suspect the nettles have also had a generous sprinkling of the amber stuff.
goldilox
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This one really should be brought to the top again. I make it regularly at this time of year - plenty in the garden unfortunately :oops:
Made it for a friend's son-in-law last year who was really worried in case it stung his mouth! Luckily was very impressed though.
PLUMPUDDING
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Thanks for reviving it Alan, I'm waiting for the nettles to start growing here.
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alan refail
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Goldilox

Merci beaucoup for bringing the topic back to the top.
I decided just this morning that I would revive it, but you've done it for me.
Somewhere on the forum is my recommendation of mixing nettles with wild garlic. Just got to sort out the freezer, but when I've finished I'll do a search for it.

Alan
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alan refail
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Found it here, but to save looking back, here's the recipe:


Nettle and Wild Garlic Soup

4 oz nettle shoots (a carrier bagful)
2 oz wild garlic leaves (ramsons)
1 oz butter
1 medium onion chopped fine
1 medium potato peeled and quartered
1 pint good chicken stock (not a cube)
grated nutmeg, salt and pepper and double cream to taste

1 Wash nettles and wild garlic (wear rubber gloves!). Put to drain in a colander.
2 Cook onion gently in butter till soft but not coloured
3 Add nettles, wild garlic and potatoes and stir until leaves wilted
4 Add stock and simmer for fifteen minutes
5 Liquidise, keeping potato pieces till the end so that soup may be to your desired thickness
6 Return to saucepan, add nutmeg, seasoning to taste and double cream to taste. Heat through and serve.

Serves 2

Mwynhewch - Enjoy

edit - just found it was higher up on this thread all the time :oops:

Alan
Cred air o bob deg a glywi, a thi a gei rywfaint bach o wir (hen ddihareb Gymraeg)
Believe one tenth of what you hear, and you will get some little truth (old Welsh proverb)
goldilox
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Have never found wild garlic growing here, maybe just looking in the wrong places. But the other day I mixed in some watercress - added a bit of spice but covered the taste of the nettles a bit.
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Johnboy
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Hi Goldilox,
Ramsomes (Wild Garlic) prefers deciduous woodland and hereabouts grows very well at the margins of the old Hazel Coppice. I have a little amount on the plot growing under some Birch trees but I planted that and it seems to bulk-up quite quickly.
I didn't find the lot in the Hazel Coppice until after Mo, a lapsed contributor, had sent me some.
JB.
vivienz
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Both recipes sound delicious, Alan; I shall find myself a carrier bag full of nettles as soon as possible. We live not too far from a river, so I may get some good foraging down there. It's my favourite blackberrying spot later in the year!
Thanks for the recipe,
Vivien
Bren
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AS children in the month of May my mother gave us nettles to eat (she cooked it like cabbage)she said it was to clean the blood we had it three times during the month never at any other time.
I will have to wait till the spring to try Alan's soup,
Bren
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