This cream of nettle soup recipe turns your patch of stinging nettles at the bottom of the garden into a silky smooth, and super nutritious starter or light lunch.
How to make Cream of Nettle Soup
Start by foraging for your stinging nettles. I recommend wearing rubber washing up gloves before touching them as I find the stings really uncomfortable, however many people seem to not be too affected by them!
1/ wash the nettles
Even though I picked the nettles in a clean area where I know that no dogs, traffic or chemicals have visited, I still like to wash my nettles before cooking them.
And this time I’m glad I did as I removed a small slug and a small snail!
2/ chop the nettles
You can skip this step if you use a powerful blender.
But if your blender is a little slow you may like to give them a quick chop with a sharp knife first to make them more manageable in the pot.
3/ prep the other veggies
Peel and chop the potato, onion and garlic.
You can add any other veggies you have that need using up at this point too.
Things like carrots, sweet potato or butternut squash would all work well.
4/ sauté the veg
Place your pan over a medium high heat and add the oil.
Add the onion and cook for a few minutes until softened.
Add the garlic and potatoes and sauté for another minute or two.
Then pour in the stock, bringing to a quick boil, before reducing the heat to a simmer.
5/ add the nettles
When the potato is soft and easily crushed with the back of a spoon, add in the stinging nettles.
Return to the heat, bring back to a quick boil and simmer for 2-3 minutes.
6/ blend the soup
Either pour the soup into a blender, or use a stick blender in the pan to puree it until smooth.
7/ strain the soup (if necessary)
As mentioned previously, if your blender isn’t very powerful you might find that you can’t get your soup perfectly smooth.
Whilst it will still of course be edible, the idea of a cream soup is that it’s silky smooth so I would recommend sieving it to remove any pieces of nettle left unblended.
8/ add the cream
Put the pan of soup back on the heat. Add the cream, salt and pepper. I used oat cream as I can’t tolerate dairy, but single or double cream would both work well too.
Stir well and taste. Adjust the seasoning as necessary, then reheat until piping hot and serve.
Need more stinging nettle recipe inspiration?
If you’d like to see the rest of my nettle recipes, check out my archives here: Stinging Nettle Recipes
- 1 tbsp oil
- 1 onion - finely chopped
- 2 cloves garlic - chopped
- 250 g potato - equivalent to 1 large potato
- 1 litre vegetable stock - or 1 stock cube dissolved in one litre of boiling water
- 75 g stinging nettles - roughly chopped
- 100 g oat cream - I used used oat cream, but you could use dairy cream
- 1 tsp salt - or to taste
- ½ tsp black pepper
Heat a saucepan over a medium high heat.
Add the oil and the onion and cook gently until the onion has softened.
Add the garlic and cook for a couple of minutes.
Add the potato and stock and bring to a quick boil.
Reduce the heat until the soup is simmering rather than boiling. Cook for about 10 minutes or until the potato is soft.
Tip in the nettles and stir well.
To blend the soup, either pour the mixture into a blender or food processor, or use a stick blender to combine all of the ingredients into a silky smooth puree.
Pour in the cream and stir well.
Taste the soup, then add the salt and pepper. Stir again, taste and add more until the flavour is well balanced.
Please note: if you’ve used a stock cube instead of homemade chicken stock you may find that you don’t need to add any more salt as they contain quite a lot. Be sure to taste at every step so that you don’t make the final dish too salty.
Divide between your bowls and serve with crusty bread.
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