Two weeks ago I made a pot of nettle soup....It was REALLY NICE...So nice in fact that the following week I made another potful (just as nice)Anyway,funny thing is,I really suffer day and night with low back pain,and it's GONE.....I can't think of anything else I have done differently, so I've just done ANOTHER pot full!!! If anyone wants to try it, here goes..For a LARGE potful, half a carrier bag of nettle tops,washed, two med. spuds chopped,2 med.onions chopped 3/4 pint stock (I used chicken stock cubes) bring to boil and cook gently till cooked, then blitz into soup (or eat as it is probably).There is other thing like carrots,cream,etc but I find the above plenty nice enough.....TIP, wear gloves to pick,wash and put in the saucepan....After that they are sting free. For starters you could do 1/4 bag, or, if you don't like soup just cook as cabbage and eat!!!!
just been out this morning collecting wild nettles here in n.spain. their bloody huge leaves. just had a bowl 15 mins ago, lovely. my recipe was very basic. 1/2 bag nettles, 4 large carrots, 1 huge new spud, 1/2 cup cooked lentils. sea salt. dunno why soup recipes always insist upon onion, i rarely use it.
I've made nettle soup in the past, but I didn't add any other ingredients and that was a mistake. Nettles by themselves are pretty tasteless and need a lot of seasoning, so follow jontywino's recipe. I've still got a garden patch full of the wretched things ( I swear the roots go down to Australia!) so maybe I'll have another go too. (I've got lower back pain too.)