A dish for spring or early autumn, nettle soup is best made when stinging nettle has a fresh spurt of growth. That’s typically around mid-spring and the beginning of autumn. Harvest only the tops of the plants as the lower leaves and stems can be bitter, also the case once the plant has flowered and gone to seed. Nettle not only tastes great, but is highly nutritious and grows rapidly, making it the ideal food to forage.

This is a fairly traditional stinging nettle soup, with a base of onion, floury potatoes, and a good vegetable broth. Carrot is added for a bit more lightness and a bit of lemon zest and juice is stirred in at the end to brighten everything up a touch. I usually serve it with something like an oat or sunflower seed cream but you don’t have to add anything.

If you have plenty of nettle to use, try it in a nettle pesto as well. For more wild greens recipes, try the classic wild garlic soup or preserve the flavour of spring with wild garlic salt.

Ingredients

Ingredient Notes and Substitutions

• Nettle: use only the tops of stinging nettle plants. I imagine this would work just as well with other types of nettle, but I haven’t tried it.
• Potatoes: use floury or starchy potatoes. You can peel if preferred but I never do.
• Broth: use a good vegetable broth, it will be noticeable. A stronger broth or stock is a bit too strong and overpowers the nettle.
• Carrot: if you don’t want to use carrot, add another potato instead.
• Add-ins: optionally add 300 grams (about 2 cups) of cooked white beans to the soup before blending to make it into a meal.

Step by Step

Step 1: fry the onions for several minutes over low heat. They should be cooked but not browned. Stir in the potatoes and carrot.

Step 2: add the broth and seasoning and bring the soup to a boil, then cook until the vegetables are fork-soft. Stir in the nettle.

Step 3: cook for a couple of minutes then puree with an immersion blender.

Step 4: mix until very smooth and serve hot.

Recipe Notes

If you have an immersion blender (which I very much recommend) then this soup can be blended right in the pot, while it’s still hot, and served immediately. If you have a standard blender it will probably be necessary to cool the soup before blending and then reheat again. To do this rapidly, place the pot into a sink filled with cold water – only if using a metal pot – and stir until it cools to room temperature. Some blenders are heat-safe and will specify if that’s the case.

When harvesting nettle, the same rules apply as with any foraging. Choose an area that doesn’t have high car or animal traffic, rinse well before use, and check for bugs. Nettle is a cleaning-up plant so it will take up any heavy metals, etc. that might be present in the soil (so not ideal to harvest from industrial sites). Over-harvesting is typically not an issue.

How to Store

Storage: place the soup in a sealed container in the refrigerator to store for up to three days. It spoils quickly at room temperature.

Freezing: on the same day it’s cooked, transfer the cooled soup to an airtight container and freeze for up to two months. Thaw in the refrigerator before reheating as usual. It might lose some of its colour when reheated.

Expert Tips

• Don’t overcook the nettles: if cooked too long, stinging nettle soup has a tendency to turn a bit brownish like sorrel soup. To prevent this, be sure to cook the nettles very briefly as outlined and don’t let it come back up to a rolling boil.
• Harvest with scissors: I find the most effective way to harvest nettle, if you’re not having to pick masses of it, is to snip the tops off with scissors and then use those scissors to transfer the nettle into a basket or washable bag. Otherwise cut with scissors and then use heavy gloves to pick up the leaves.
• Don’t brown the onions: if they are golden or – perish the thought – slightly burnt, it will overwhelm the delicate flavours in the soup. You want just a slight background taste of onion, so go for softened and translucent. Some recipes call for the onions to be cooked for half an hour or more.

More Very Green Recipes

Garlic Mustard Pesto
Green Spinach Pancakes
Swiss Chard Frittata
Super Green Pasta