Was wandering round the garden and realising there was not much to eat. PSB but not much else. Spinach has gone to seed, broad beans and peas in flower, potatoes trying their best. But I have quite a lot of very juicy looking stinging nettles. (Too much time on the allotment). So decided to try a few.
These were duly steamed and put with butter and pepper. I wound myself up for the taste test. The smell from the steamer was quite pleasant. I stared at them for some time but finally took the plunge.
I was very pleasantly surprised they were considerably better than spinach or cabbage. Actually quite a good taste. Only downside seemed to be a slight furriness of texture. Stalks are a bit stringy so only the tips are really edible.
Could not persuade my OH to give them a try.
Oh we are definately missing...I use nettles now and then...and yes they are supprisingly tasty..but stick to the leaves only.. ;D or you'll be flossing your teeth with fibres ;D
My favourite uses are..in omelette..potato and nettle soup...in cob dough....
I think for you to get rid of the furriness you really need to put them in water rather than just steam.. ;)
My OH try anything if I don't tell him beforehand what he is actually eating..or I leave the questionable bit out ;D ;)
tempt your O.H with nettle pesto,my mother used to give us this when we were kids(mum was such an old hippy! ;D) before supermarkets had even heard of the word pesto.
also wonderful with (wild) mushrooms on toast.
http://www.foodiesite.com/recipes/2001-05:nettlepesto (http://www.foodiesite.com/recipes/2001-05:nettlepesto)
My OH will not notice them at all if they were in the middle of a meal. He is not very good at eating anything at the wrong time. Put a raspberry under his nose and he will not eat it, it has to be in a dish.
I think Goodlife there is nothing wrong with the furriness it is very a matter of getting used to it. 'Everything is unusual until you get used to it.' (I think that this quote comes from one of the Wizard of Oz books)
One of our plotholders has a nettle patch for making nettle soup. The whole family eats it, including the toddler :) :) :)
I must ask them for the recipe as there are loads of nettles where we collect manure from.
I have loads of fat hen on the lottie. Might give that a try now as well. The seeds arrive with the manure so it is everywhere. It is one of the plants whose seeds are said keep under the ground for huge periods of time.
Will you share the recipe when you get it, please? My OH says he won't try it as a veg but might not recognise it in soup form!!!! :)
Made some nettle soup for the first time this year.. Not too shabby for a free (ish) meal and I definitely give it another go..
I think its best done with fresh early growth though
Maybe it depends on how many times you fell into stinging nettles as a kid, but in the same way as the smell of gorse flowers on a sunny day will always take me back to the beach & forest where I grew up, the smell of cooking nettles always takes me back to falling in the sodding things!
Try this, grandly titled "Lady Ridley's nettle soup"
http://www.nettles.org.uk/nettles/activities/nettlesoup.asp (http://www.nettles.org.uk/nettles/activities/nettlesoup.asp)
This became a firm favourite just after we took over our plot and nowt else was growing but weeds.
My husband also will not eat anything unless you put it on a plate as part of a meal. I made a cole slaw which included chopped up hedge garlic, sorrel and blanched dandelions, and he ate it like a lamb. Liked it so much that he made some for himself while I was away last week (without the secret ingredients).
He did ask "What's in this?" after a forkful of greens, to which I answered "Various sorts of spinach" (cooked sorrel, hedge garlic and actual spinach) so he noticed a difference, but seemed satisfied.
I have made nettle soup in previous years, but tend to think its flavour comes from the other ingredients......but at the moment, just before the spinach goes mad and needs to be used, I will try it again.
Love the recipe for nettle pesto, will be making some of that. i make nettle soup and add some fresh mint to it for extra flavor. as already said best to use the young leaves.
;D another vote for the nettle pesto / shades x
I eat and drink nettle products all the time, I pick them wild from anywhere I can avoid dog pee. Tasty things they are too, I boil them down like spinach and freeze them in balls for winter use. I prefer them to just about any green I grow.
I have been considering domesticating them recently, just think how different cabbages are from kale, brussels from cauliflower... imagine what some selction and breeding good give us from the nettle.
Great for compost and fibre making too. Like hemp, it's one of those wonder plants.
What ever you do just don't eat them after they have flowered.
One of our lottie neighbours raves about putting nettle tips in curries.