"Cream" of Stinging Nettle Soup

I happened upon a booth selling stinging nettles at the Farmer's Market last weekend.  The memory of eating stinging nettle soup in the Himalaya's popped right into my mind and I was intrigued. I decided to buy the huge plastic bag of nettles (price was only $3 for the bag!) and see what I could do.

Please forgive my lack of camera skills and photography for this particular blog post.  I did not take photos as I made the soup and I failed to take any photos of the stinging nettles themselves!  If you'd like to see a photo of stinging nettles, please go to:
http://www.examiner.com/images/blog/wysiwyg/image/DSC02005.JPG

I perused various online recipes looking for vegan uses of nettles.  Most of the recipes were soup or pesto.  I decided to follow and play with a pressure cooker version of "cream" of nettle soup.

*Note - you must immerse rinsed nettles in hot water for at least 10 seconds if you are going to use them like spinach in any kind of lasagna, stir fry, tofu scramble, etc.  This will remove the little stingers which apparently hurt like hell.

Ingredients:


1 or more tablespoons oil
1 onion, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
1 celery stalk, chopped
2 medium russet potatoes, washed and chopped with skin
8 cups water or vegetable broth
6 - 8 or more cups of nettles
salt and pepper to taste


1.  Using gloves or tongs, wash the nettles in a colander, rinsing and rinsing

2.  Heat oil in the pressure cooker and add onion.  Saute on very low heat until onion is beginning to caramelize.

3.  Add chopped carrot and celery and saute for a few more minutes.

4.  Add chopped potato and liquid (water or broth).  Place nettles on top.  Put lid on pressure cooker and bring up to high heat for 5 minutes.  Place pressure cooker (this supposes that your pressure cooker is not an electric, but stove top cooker) in sink and run cold water over it to bring pressure down.

5.  Wait for contents to cool and then blend, adding more salt and pepper if you like.

6.  I added about 1/2 cup of almond milk, as well.

Note:  You do not need to cook this soup in a pressure cooker.  You can use a normal stove top method, but it will take slightly longer. 

We enjoyed this soup.  The nettles cook down very much like spinach but the taste is more earthy.  This particular soup uses the potato as the thickener and becomes very creamy due to the potato being cooked and blended.  I thought the soup was more of a potato soup with deep green taste and color. It was yummy the first night but I liked it even more on the second day.

I did a little online research regarding stinging nettles.  Like most "greens" nettles are very low in calories and fat, rich in fiber, and have a high protein count per cup (2.4g protein per cup).  Nettles are high in iron, calcium, Vitamin A and a great source of Vitamin K which is required for blood clotting.

Nettles have a long history of use as a diuretic, joint pain treatment, helping to promote healthy adrenal glands and kidneys, speed wound healing and are used for many pre-menstrual and menopausal symptoms.

Nettles typically appear in spring and grow all summer long. 

Euell Gibbons, an authority on wild foods and foraging, wrote an "ode" to stinging nettle: "And yet, this detested weed is one of the finest and most nutritious foods in the whole plant kingdom.  Unlike many health foods, nettle greens are really good, as well as being good for you."