Foraging for Nettles
From Boogey Monster to showcased ingredient, this once feared stinging plant is now becoming a wonderfully versatile and tasty key ingredient in my kitchen! The experience alone is worth an attempt at cooking with nettles!!
I would be willing to wager that if I took a poll of 100 people, more than 75 of them would have some story of a stinging nettle or warning tale, despite where they grew up. Unlike any other child, I fall into that majority, although growing up in a more rural area, my ‘warning’ came more as a daily interaction of pink splotches all over my legs and scabs from scratching. In a sort of way, looking back, this falls under the scrapped knee from a dirt road and gum in your hair from your sister….I mean, accident… nostalgia 🙂 Because of this connotation, I have never been chomping at the bit to try foraging for or cooking with nettles, although it’s not unfamiliar.
Enter this blog and kitchen adventures. Nettles started to become the elephant in the room, wishing me to try them, wondering why I hadn’t. It seemed even advertisements started to tailor around nettle season and subliminal hints of facing your fears. Ok universe, hint taken. I can’t really set out on a journey of discovery if I only stay where I’m comfortable, right?! Nettles, suit up!
The first order of business is to find said stinging nettles. So far, this was off to the easiest challenge I have ever had! If memory serves me at all, not only is there NO HUNTING NEEDED for nettles, but in many backyards, this is a weed needing to be removed often. To fully capitalize on the experience, and collect as many as my heart and skin resistance could handle, I headed out to the country to do some investigating.
If you are not familiar or have a more urban setting, I would suggest looking under trees or around any posts/fences. Nettles seem to like partial shade and typically congregate together in clusters.
I should back up. If you haven’t gleaned from my above text, these plants have stinging elements (shocking, right?!). Before you set out on your journey, you will be wise to find yourself a pair of long gardening gloves. While any regular gardening glove typically holds up, these plants can get quite tall and the leaves often go beyond your wrist, so the extra length is always appreciated. At the very least, a good, long-sleeved shirt tucked into your wristband will be a lifesaver.
They say wisdom comes with age, and while I’m still working on this, I also hold on to the philosophy of surrounding yourself with those older and wiser, and learning from them! A beautiful perk of being a metalsmith’s daughter is the gear involved. If it is strong enough to hold an orange piece of hot metal, it probably could protect my arms from these delicate green plants, but hey, I wasn’t about to take chances. I rolled up looking like I was on a nuclear mission, and not one bit ashamed about it.
Given the time of year, the plants vary greatly in height. Whatever time you go out, for the sake of cooking, I would suggest taking no more than the top 6 inches, as the further down the stalks, the tougher the plant gets. Out of respect for the plant and nature, it’s also good to not pull the plants out by the root. And who knows, you may want to harvest again after learning some great recipes!
Once home, re-equipping myself with warlike protective gloves, I took a bucket and carefully pulled off just the leaves of the plants I was going to use. Depending on how you like to cook them and the tenderness of the plants you found, many people will cook the stem as well, but I was planning to use these for baking, so wanted a more smooth finish and wasn’t about to take chances!
There are many ways to remove the ‘sting’ from the nettles in cooking, but most commonly one blanches, steams, sautés, dries, or purees. Realistically, this was becoming easier the closer I got to the kitchen. Similar to any green that has a unique flavor you want to remove, it’s not too far out of the ordinary to have to cook off some unwanted property, and the sting factor here was no exception.
For this experiment, I cooked the nettles a few ways. Shown above, I used a colander to steam them briefly, and also a larger pot to boil them directly. You will see in the recipes below the various uses, but I find that each method produces a little bit of a different strength of flavor, so good to know as you use them. The more water and longer cook time, not surprisingly, produces a much more mild flavor. If you are looking to taste the leaf flavor, I would sauté.
This cake was particularly fun for me because of how different the look was to flavor. If this was a blind taste test, this would rank as one of the best lemon pound cakes I’ve ever had, with a mouth-watering, lemon cream cheese frosting. The blackberry was more than just a garnish, and combined really well on each piece.
Despite the fabulous flavor, I had two brave young men (nephew tasting kitchen for this one!) that stuck to sneaking fingerfuls of frosting and stealing berries. The color can be intimidating! But, this would be a great dessert for a dinner party or celebration, looking much more ornate that it really is. In fact, possibly easier to cook than many other cakes I’ve made. You can read more in my recipe post below.
To deviate from the sweet profile, I wanted to try the nettles in a different form, and with a more savory touch. These crepes, while a bit labor intensive, were a very fun creation! If making for a crowd, there are lots of ways to make aspects of this ahead of time, making it an easier dish to pull together for an impressive brunch.
Nettle Crepe with Shiitake Mushrooms, Goat Cheese, and Mint
**Another recipe that I played with was a nettle chimichurri, and it was not for lack of flavor that it did not make this blog cut! As I finished the pesto like condiment, and the flank steak was just coming off of the grill, we had a horrible tornado warning, so dinner was enjoyed over candlelight in the basement. But, I will say, it was fantastic and I would definitely like to revisit this at some point over the summer when the time allows (sliced grilled flank steak with nettle chimichurri, served over gingered carrot puree). Nettles, cilantro, parsley, garlic, lemon, olive oil, salt and pepper. My apologies crew, I will follow up on this recipe, as it really was amazing!
Thank you for joining me along this journey! Despite any fears I may have had, I do not believe I sustained any serious injuries to arms or mouth, and came out with some really great recipes that, I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I will absolutely use again! Fear turned to conquered!!
I look forward to checking out the next foraging adventure as the season unfolds. Please share feedback with me if you have ideas or suggestions, invite others along for the adventure, and thank you for taking time to follow me! Hopefully the recipes are worth the sunburns 🙂
Thank you for tagging along,
Hannah (your fearless culinary visionnaire)
