Irish Restaurants seldom serve Irish food, so your only hope is to make it yourself. Nettle Soup is a classic, traditional and delicious dish, cheap and easy to make. Young nettles are plentiful and easily found by even the most reticent of foragers.
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| Wild Nettles (Urtica Doica) growing in County Kilkenny |
Pick young nettle tops, using rubber gloves, you can pick them without gloves if you know how to grab the stems and leaves, without getting stung.
Apologies to Darina Allen for corrupting her recipe.
RECIPE
Large bunch nettles
Tablespoon of butter
3 shallots or 1 onion or leeks
1 medium Golden Wonder Potato
1 litre good quality homemade chicken stock
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| Freshly picked Nettles (Urtica Doica) |
Melt the butter until bubbling, add finely chopped shallots and well diced Golden Wonder potato, add a little salt and pepper. Cover and cook over a low heat until the potato is soft. Add the stock and simmer for a couple of minutes, then add the chopped nettles, cook for another couple of minutes.
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| Nettle Soup |
Puree the mixture in a blender until smooth (originally, it would have put through a hair sieve) and reheat before serving. A delicious Irish country soup, the traditional recipe would not have used potato, an introduced species - oatmeal or some other cereal would have been used instead.
According to Ray Mears and Gordon Hillman, Stinging Nettles (
Urtica Doica) are a very good source of protein, as well as vitamins C & B, calcium, potassium iron, phosphorous, magnesium etc. So, give it a go...
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