Time again for the spring tonic

Nettle and Wild Garlic Soup

4 oz nettle shoots (a carrier bagful)
2 oz wild garlic leaves
1 oz butter
1 medium onion chopped fine
1 medium potato peeled and quartered
1 pint good chicken stock (not a cube)
grated nutmeg, salt and pepper and double cream to taste

1 Wash nettles and wild garlic (wear rubber gloves!). Put to drain in a colander.
2 Cook onion gently in butter till soft but not coloured
3 Add nettles, wild garlic and potatoes and stir until leaves wilted
4 Add stock and simmer for fifteen minutes
5 Liquidise, keeping potato pieces till the end so that soup may be to your desired thickness
6 Return to saucepan, add nutmeg, seasoning to taste and double cream to taste. Heat through and serve.

Serves 2

Afternoon Alan, i thought of this very topic this morning, as i grabbed a hand full of weeds and got stung between the fingers.

Gosh, they were strong......

Agreed OH.
The nettles that line the road to our allotment are well and truly on the way (only a few inches high, but a thick blanket all along the road).

I welcome these, not only for Alan's recipes. By Spring, our conservatory is awash with greenfly and the nettles are a great source of ladybirds & ladybird larvae which I harvest to eat the aphids.

Just to prove that we do eat this here is my today's lunch. Picked the first ramsons and nettles this morning - rather later than previous years as the nettles are somewhat slower this year.

Will it persuade you to have a go at it? The colour of the soup may put some people off, but it's pure spring

No.

It resembles very closely the colour of a spinach soup I was once tempted to make, which was pure bitter green nastiness.

Looks lovely, but needs a swirl of double cream, and I would have the bread to the left and wine glass to the right!

Hi Jude

The double cream is there, just not visible.

Yes, Alan, I'd give it a go, but probably using last years garlic since I don't know a reliable source of ransoms.

I persuaded my very sceptical wife to try ravioli stuffed with nettles & shallots a few years ago. Like Tony she was partly concerned they would taste awful and found it hard to put something in her mouth that she'd normally avoid touching! Need less to say it turned out fine.

Alan should probably advise, but I find once cooked nettles have a fairly mild flavour.

Finally, what was in the glass Alan?

Hi Colin

It would be a different soup with dry garlic - just as nice though. I would suggest only a little garlic, as fresh ramsons only give a mild garlic tinge to the fresh green taste of the nettles. A good alternative would be new green garlic leaves.

What was in the glass?

This, if I remember rightly



PS for Tony

Young nettles are not in the slightest bitter-tasting.

I admit I'm just vary wary of anything that shade of green; but I'll take your word for it that they are OK Alan. I've still got the remains of last year's beetroot surplus to eat my way through as Borscht for now ...

Ahhhh, Borscht. Now that should be the subject of a whole new thread.

Over to you Tony.

Looks lovely, I shall have to try it as our wild garlic is spreading quite nicely and could do with being harvested. I love making nettle tea so soup will be nice to try.

Black Stump is lovely.

A few unopened ramsons flower heads are a tasty addition to a salad.