🇬🇧 United Kingdom, 🇮🇪 Ireland, and 🇩🇪 Germany · Northern and central Europe
Nettle soup
A spring soup of young nettle tops cooked briefly in a broth of onion and potato (often with leek) and usually puréed, finished with milk or cream. Cooking removes the sting and turns the soup bright green.
Origin and history
Nettle soup is a spring dish of Britain, Ireland and German-speaking countries. The Irish Examiner says nettles have been part of the Irish diet for over 6,000 years, that an old saying advised four feeds of nettles in May to purify the blood, and that monks added them to pottages. The New Statesman calls nettle soup an ancient standby of the poor waiting for spring crops, without citing specific sources.
Make it at home
- Makes
- 6 servings
- Total time
- 40 min
- Hands-on
- 25 min
Ingredients
- 45 g3 tbsp butter
- 285 g10 oz potatoes, peeled, chopped
- 110 g4 oz onion, chopped
- 110 g4 oz leeks, white and pale green, chopped
- 1 l1 quart light chicken or vegetable stock
- 140 g5 oz young nettle tops, about 2 big handfuls, picked with gloves, washed
- 150 ml2/3 cup whole milk, or cream
- salt, black pepper, a little nutmeg, to taste
Method
-
1. Wearing gloves, strip the nettle leaves and tender top shoots from the stems and wash them. Discard tough stems and flowering plants.
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2. Melt the butter in a heavy pot over low heat. Add the potatoes, onion and leeks, season, cover and sweat for about 10 minutes, until soft but not browned.
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3. Pour in the stock and bring to a boil. Cook until the vegetables are just tender, about 10 minutes.
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4. Add the nettles and simmer uncovered for just a few minutes, until wilted; do not overcook or the flavour and colour dull.
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5. Add the milk and blend until completely smooth.
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6. Reheat gently without boiling, adjust the seasoning and serve hot.
Notes
- Pick only young spring tops. ÖKO-TEST advises using only the top pairs of leaves on older plants, the Berliner Kurier the top four to six leaves, and both say to avoid places fouled by dogs or livestock (ÖKO-TEST) and to wear gloves.
- Cooking or blending destroys the stinging hairs, so the soup is safe, but wear gloves while picking and washing.
- The quantities here follow the Irish Examiner recipe (Darina Allen's), which uses potato, onion and leek with chicken stock and milk and serves it with nettle pesto. German versions are close: ÖKO-TEST uses 200 g leaves with potato, carrot, onion, a little garlic and nutmeg in 400 ml broth, simmered 30 minutes and puréed without milk, and the Berliner Kurier uses 500 g of young leaves, two potatoes, onion and garlic in 1 l of broth, finished with 100 ml cream, nutmeg and lemon juice.
- If nettles are out of season, spinach with a little watercress gives a similar colour, though not the same flavour.
- Keeps 2 days in the fridge; the bright green dulls on reheating, so reheat gently.
Adapted from Irish Examiner: stinging nettle soup recipe, ÖKO-TEST: Brennnesseln essen, Gerichte aus jungen Brennnesseln, and Berliner Kurier: Brennnesselsuppe nach Omas Rezept.
At the festivals
Served at 1 festival in France.
Earlier editions
- October 12, 2024