For some reason, I had decided that today’s workshop was going to be about nettles. I made a soup with them (once) last year, it had filled me with an incredible sense of pride and accomplishment (though I am not sure why, something to do with foraging i think, and braving the sting). Anyway it just stayed somewhere in my mind as something I should share.
Thing is, nettles are really goor for you. They are packed with vitamins (C in particular) and minerals (iron, calcium, potassium). They have a high protein content and feature all the essential amino-acids you need on a daily basis (especially handy for vegetarians). They are a very strong anti-oxydant, and are great for detoxing and regaining balance.
They also happen to be available in vast quantities and to be totally free.
[A few tips for harvesting : have gloves on hand, go for the young plants, before they go to flower, may and june are the best months, and stick to the smaller top leaves. Stay clear of busy roads, sprayed field edges,… Blanching, choping, pounding, rinsing in water+vinegar, drying all take out the sting. Rinse well as nettles are a favored habitat for a LOT of insects]
I would not say they are an easy vegetable, as in bland or to anybody’s taste, on the contrary they have a very distinctive taste. To the ever curious, vegetarian, environemental impact obsessed cook that I am, all this is more than enough to make them an incredibly appealing product to play with a little bit.
So I played, and experimented, all sorts of recipes, in preparation for the workshop. I am sharing here the three top ones, for my taste buds, and those of my tireless taste testers.
For the workshop in the end I went with a very nude simple green sauce, that we used as a salad dressing (with grated carrots, rocket and toasted hazelnuts) and as a sauce to spread on some peas and chickpeas falafels.
Nettle green sauce
- 2 big handfuls rinsed fresh nettles leaves, roughly chopped
- 1/2 lemon, juiced
- pinch of salt
- Olive oil
Rinse and roughly chop the nettles leaves, place in a blender with a few tablespoons olive oil, the pinch of salt, lemon juice, process until smooth. Adjust consistency with more olive oil or a bit of water as necessary.
I thought it was the preparation that best respected the nutritionnal value of the nettle and its taste. Also for the crack of working with raw nettles during a workshop… A nettle soup would also fall in that category of “full on taste” recipes. You melt an onion, add diced potatoes, cover and cook in water, season, add the rinsed nettles a few minutes at the end, before blending and serving, with a bit of cream for instance.
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Another thing to do with nettles is to use them as you would spinach. In a quiche, a soufflé, a savory cake for instance. Less true to the taste but very enjoyable. I tried a few recipes but particularly like these muffins, perfect for a snack or pique nique on the beach. And they are gluten free as well !
Nettles muffins – GF (8 small muffins) – [adapted from Clea’s book “Tout sans gluten”]
- 2 small handfuls almonds – about 40g
- 200g fresh nettles leaves
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp salt or 1 tbsp tamari
- 70g brown rice flour
- 40g buckwheat flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 100 ml non dairy milk
- 50 ml olive oil
Pre-heat the oven on 200°C. Toast the almonds for a few minutes in a dry pan.
Rinse the nettles, blanche them in boiling water for about 2 minutes. Thoroughly drain the nettles, chop them, and combine with the eggs, salt, flours, baking powder, milk and oil. Coarsly chop the almonds, stir them in.
Place in muffin tins (the dough is not very runny), bake for 12-15 minutes, until a knife blade comes out dry. Leave to cool for a while before serving.
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And the last recipe is… nettle pastas! I had always assumed you needed a specific machine to make pasta, that would flatten the dough and make it thin enough. and it left me terribly frustrated (there was no way I would buy such a machine, for using it so seldom and for lack of space…). Until I came upon that nettle pasta dough recipe in the very informative book “les secrets de l’ortie “(Bernard Bertrand, Ed. le Terran), that simply said : “roll out the dough as thinly as possible”. Suddenly seemed totally doable to me. Well, big success. a rolling pin and a little patience is all you need to make pasta, and it’s really worth the effort. The nettle taste was there all right, but with the easy yumminess of pastas.
Nettle pasta dough (tagliatelles for a family of 4 + 20 raviolis)
- 50g fresh nettle leaves
- 3 eggs
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- about 300-350g wheat flour
- 1 tsp salt
Rinse, drain, and thinly chop the nettle leaves. In a bowl, whisk the eggs, stir in the nettles leaves, olive oil, salt. Add the flour, little by little, until you get a dough that is no loger sticking to your hands. Knead gently until you have a smooth elastic dough. Refrigerate for (at least) 30 minutes. Separate the dough in small balls (I made 6). On a well floured surface, roll out one as thinly as possible, flour both side, gently roll it and slice it (about 3-5 mm thick slices). Spread a kitchen towel, sprinkle flour on it. Unfold your pastas and set them aside on the floured kitchen towel, while you get going with the remaining 5 balls. Be generous with flour, it is essential for the pastas not to stick to one another. To cook, boil water in a large pan, with salt and 1 tbsp olive oil. Add the pasta, and cook for approximately 5 minutes (tasting is still the best way to know when they are done…)
I used my pasta dough in two ways. Tagliatelles (that turned out more like Parpadelle, a bit wider than expected) and raviolis, stuffed with a goat’s cheese, coriander and kalamata olives filling. Simply served wih olive oil and fresh pressed garlic. Yum!
Kitchen Rendez-Vous 