Urtica dioica

Urtica Dioica

Perhaps the most infamous wild edible is stinging nettle, at least to those who have not tried it. Yes, you should use proper care when harvesting nettle: gloves, long pants, and stay aware of where the plants are around you. The mature stems are an excellent source of tough fibers for rope and blankets, so when picking for food, you just want to pick off the top 2 or 3 sets of leaves, preferably from younger plants. Stinging nettle tends to grow in large colonies when it is found, so even just a few leaves from each plant quickly adds up to a large amount.

When identifying stinging nettle, remember that it looks a lot like mint, with the square stem and opposite leaves. When it is mature it can easily be distinguished from mints by the flowers. Mint flowers are showy and grow in dense clusters at the top of the stem or in the axils of the leaves. Nettle flowers are inconspicuous but you will see the long drooping seed stalks which grow from the upper leaf axils and hang down. When young, look for the stinging hairs, which are especially prominent on the stem, and also noticeable on the leaves if you look closely. Actually stinging yourself is also a sure-fire method of identification, and isn't too bad when you can choose the location and amount of sting.

I washed my nettle, turning the bunch with a large grilling fork, and then boiled it for 10 minutes, saving the water, since nettle tea is renowned for its healthy effects. The drained and cooled nettle leaves were very soft and rather slimy. The flavor is decent, and grows on you after a few bites, but the sliminess gets in the way of enjoying the flavor. The nettle tea is a bit thickened and has a hearty flavor. My wife suggested that it would make an really good soup broth. And so it turns out that nettle's true culinary calling is to be soup. I cooked potatoes, carrots, onion, salt, pepper, and parsley and chives from my yard, along with the nettle tea and nettle leaves, and had a very good nettle/vegetable soup. The nettle flavor takes a few bites to get used to, but the more you eat it, the more you like it.

Hot & Sour Nettle Soup

The taste of the nettle soup reminded me a bit of chinese hot and sour soup, so the next time I picked stinging nettle, I made hot & sour nettle soup. The nettles are not slimy if they are only cooked 1-3 minutes, so I cooked them about 2 minutes, and then after they were safe to handle, I separated the larger stems and leaves and cooked them another 10 minutes to make the nettle broth. Then I discarded those nettles and added back in the nettles which had been cooked less. Besides the nettle leaves, I added some foraged vegetables: cooked dock leaves, wild onions, water leaf root (cooked) and stem. (Day lilies do not grow wild here, but they are a traditional ingredient as well.) From my garden came scallions, daikon, and egg drop. From the store I added mushrooms, black fungus, and carrots. The broth was enhanced to get the hot & sour flavor with soy sauce, pepper, and rice vinegar (never use white vinegar; it's more of a cleaning chemical and is not fit for human consumption).