Simple Foragers Nettle Soup Recipe

Have you read my Herbal Adventures Series of books for kids yet? If not, what are you waiting for? Jump on over to my shop and order all 4 now for the special price of 4 for $60! (Pending stock availability)

These books were inspired by the herbal foraging adventures I used to go on with my son when we lived in the medicinal forests of Germany. We would set off on our pushbikes riding upon the many beautiful paths that lead deep within the forests surrounding our home with backpacks on our backs that were filled with paper bags, ID books, Hori Hori (special root digging knife) knives and scissors ready to forage, harvest and bring home for processing our beloved wild foods and medicines.

My son has learnt from a very young age that “weeds” are actually medicines, and in the European forests, there are very few plants that are dangerous, and that most plants are indeed very useful in providing beautiful ecosystems and habitats, foods for animals and us, and can be used as medicines! There were a few nasty plants near where we lived, including Hemlock, and I taught him from a young age how to correctly identify Poison Hemlock. Poison Hemlock does have a few look-alikes, so I also taught him never to touch any of the look-alikes unless I was there to ask first. In case you do not know, Poison Hemlock is so dangerous that it can do serious harm even if only touched.

In Australia, however, our ecosystem is very different from the gentle European Forests, and all the native indigenous foragers who looked after these lands and likely controlled the noxious plants have long been nearly wiped out by the British when they arrived on these shores a few hundred years ago. Sadly, this means that many brilliant stewardship practices have long been lost, along with the knowledge of foraging for food and medicines in certain regions of Australia. With this in mind, there are many plants we should not even touch until we have an experienced guide or forager with us, however, luckily ALL the wild weeds I speak of in my Children’s herbal adventures series of books, focus on weeds that are commonly and affectionately known as “Footpath medicine”. When the British arrived in Australia, they brought some of their plants with them, and these plants are the ones I have written the books on - weeds that are either native or have naturalised on nearly every continent around the globe! So if you are on a different continent and wondering if these books can help you, chances are the answer is, YES!

Australia actually has its own native Dandelions, Plantains (not the banana but the weed), AND nettles! Yarrow has naturalised here, and as I write this,s I am not aware of any native species of Yarrow. In any case, they do grow across most regions of the country, either wild or planted in your garden.

Okay, so let’s talk about stinging nettle! This is one of nature’s most nutritious herbs, and Nature was so thoughtful she made it prickly so the other animals would leave it for us clever humans to harvest, dry, cook, and consume!

Recipe:

First, you will want to make a delicious Vegetable stock. If you have read Foraging for Nettle Medicine, you’ll recall that Sammy also grabbed some shallots and Thyme on his way back to Grandma’s house. These were to put in the vegetable stock that we want to base our lovely, nutritious recipe on. Basically, any herbs and vegetables you have in your kitchen, you can include in your stock recipe - you really can’t go wrong.

Shallots, or brown onions (in my video, I use onion as Shallots were not in season)

Thyme

Carrots

Celery

water

leeks

parsely

bay leaves

peppercorns

Garlic

salt

Simply chop them all up, cover them with a few litres of water (roughly 10-12 cups) and set to simmer away for about an hour, strain and discard the veggies on to your compost heap and use the strained stock as the liquid part of your Foragers Nettle Soup recipe (below).

Forager’s Nettle Soup RECIPE

You will need Stinging Nettles - and lots of them! As a forager, I didn’t measure, but a good big bowl full of healthy fresh nettle leaves will be great for this recipe. I cut the leaves away from the stems so the stems wouldn’t be too stringy for my stick blender when it is time to whiz it all up. If you a more of a video person, I have made a video of the recipe and you can watch it HERE.

Okay, so what will you need?

Ingredients: (serves 2 people)

4 Potatoes

1 onion

2 cloves Garlic

Pinch of Salt

Pepper

Nutmeg

500ml Vegetable stock (from recipe above)

1 large bowl of fresh Stinging Nettle leaves

Lemon (optional)

Other herbs (optional)

A dollop of sour cream (optional)

Fresh edible flowers to garnish

Finely dice the Onions, Potato, Garlic, and set aside. In another bowl, take your stinging nettle and chop the leaves away from the stems to fill a large mixing bowl.

Add oil of choice to a pot and simmer your onions until they are glassy, adding the Garlic at this time too.

Next, add your chopped potatoes to the simmering Onion and Garlic, and then add your Vegetable stock to the pot. At this point, test the flavor of your stock, and if it needs more salt and pepper for flavor, add in a generous pinch of each. Cover with a lid and bring to a boil until the potatoes are soft, and then add some grated nutmeg to your soup.

Next, add your bowl of fresh nettle leaves to your pot. Similar to spinach, the nettle leaves will reduce down quite dramatically. At this point, you could add other fresh herbs if you want to, but for this recipe, we are keeping things simple. Replace the lid and leave everything to simmer with a lid on the pot for another 15 minutes or so.

Remove from heat, and if your children are helping you, ensure they can’t get splashed by the hot contents as we put a stick blender in the pot to blend all the parts of our simple foragers nettle soup. At this point, in my video, I taste-test and thought it also needed a squeeze of lemon for additional flavour. This is optional.

Serve your foragers nettle soup into your bowl and add a dollop of sour cream if you wish. Add those edible flowers to the top to make it look pretty, serve, and enjoy!