Home-made Nettle Soup Take 2

More frugal foraged health food

By Andrea Cullen; April 30^th 2014

So now that I have tried my Nettle Soup Take 1 I realise that these stinging beasties are not going to kill me from anaphylactic shock once cooked (funny because I already knew this; I have no idea from where the paranoia reigns) I am adding a greater quantity of nettles into my Nettle Soup Take 2. Both these recipes show you that nettles can be added pretty much into any vegetable soup recipe.

Today we are having a day of full on heavy Irish rain; like this so I had to get the wellies on.

However nettles are in such abundance in the fields and gardens here it will only take you a few minutes to collect what you need. Remember it is wise to wear a pair of rubber gloves to prevent being stung or you may end up with itchy stings that look like this:

The following recipe is another Andrea invention; my apologies in advance as quantities are rough estimates based on what was available in the fridge.

Chicken stock and soup in one:

We had a chicken carcass left over with a decent amount of chicken on it so I decided to make the stock and soup all in one as I didn’t have sufficient time to make the stock and then the soup. Any stock can be used be it home-made from chicken, beef, or lamb bones or from high quality stock cubes that are free from MSG and gluten. I am practicing frugal cooking and so I am doing my best to not waste a scrap in the kitchen and so I used the chicken carcass and left over meat to add nutrition to my soup.

Nettle soup ingredients:  

Nettles

Onions, Carrots, Courgettes, Celery, Nettles

Chicken carcass, water and chopped veggies

• Chicken carcass with remaining meat
• 1 onion
• 2 carrots
• Several sticks of celery
• 1 courgette
• Dried oregano
• Nettles – washed to remove any insects or passengers and leaves removed from stalks
• Green leafy cabbage (approx. 1/4 to 1/3 depending on how many nettles you are using)
• Fresh parsley from the garden
• Canned corn on the cob (optional – I haven’t eaten corn in a long time so was intrigued to add this to my soup)
• Sea salt and black pepper
• Optional thickening using corn flour or potato flour

Instructions:

1. Wash all your vegetables well. I use Kangen 11.5 pH water.
2. Add the chicken carcass, roughly chopped onion, carrots, celery, and courgette to a large soup pan/ saucepan. Cover generously with water.
3. Bring to the boil and simmer gently for approximately one hour.
4. Carefully remove all the chicken bones leaving any meat as best you can.
5. Add the nettles, shredded cabbage, dried herbs and parsley and simmer for approx. ten minutes.
6. Blitz with a hand-held blender or in the liquidiser. You may prefer to thicken with corn flour or potato flour. Season to taste with sea or Himalayan or Hawaiian salt and fresh black pepper.
7. Serve as is if you wish to keep this lean; if you wish to indulge consider adding a generous dollop of cream or coconut milk or I sometimes add a dollop of home-made hummus. See here:
8. Enjoy!!

On addition of nettles, cabbage, herbs and corn

Blitzing the soup

Finished product: nettle vegetable chicken soup

If you have any recipe suggestions please do add them to the comments as I am sure that others will be delighted to have further culinary inspirations and ideas.

Love Andrea