I regularly buy baby spinach for making green smoothies and thought I’d road test using stinging nettles instead as they are abundant, free, create no plastic bag waste and being freshly picked will hold a bazillion times more nutrients than supermarket spinach.

The only downside was, I had no idea if they would still sting.

I know that heating nettles disarms the sting (either in soup, wilted over steam or even just held over a naked flame) but I had no idea what would happen if I just whizzed them up.

Call me a intrepid explorer if you will, but I decided to be my own Guinea Pig.

If you’re going to play along at home, rinse the bugs off the nettle tips first. I don’t need any added protein for breakfast thank you.

My regular green smoothie contains 2 bananas, a handful of greens, a defrosted pot of berries and half a cup or so of cold water. I keep frozen Blackberries on hand, but dislike the numerous pips if I’m using in a smoothie, so I blend them up, strain & mush through a fine sieve & freeze in single use portions. If I have any other berries they go in too. Raspberries, Strawberries & Blueberries are all delish (and the frozen supermarket ones are less than half the price of the fresh at this time of year)

That makes 2 portions of smoothie, one for breakfast and one for this afternoon.

Oh, I guess you want to know if I got a mouth full of nettle stings? NO!

It tasted more ‘green’ than using baby spinach, but it was yummy and I have this ridiculously virtuous glow right now thinking about devouring the weed patch in my back garden! Enjoy!

Featured in; Frugally Sustainable 

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