This wonderful very old Irish soup recipe was inspired by Chef Jess Murphy of Kai, from her recent feature in Food and Wine Magazine(March 2021)
Nettles are best gathered in March, April and May, just before they come into flower. We are lucky we have plenty of them particularly around the edges of the farm in spring. Pick only young, sweet, tender leaves from the top of each plant. Older leaves tend to be bitter. Leaves can be dried or frozen but are better used fresh.
Ingredients
500g Stinging nettles
1 tbsp olive oil
1 medium white onion, peeled and roughly chopped
1 leek, washed and diced
2 large flour potatoes, peel and diced into cub
1 litre chicken stock
75 mls cream / we sometimes replace the cream with Velvet Cloud
50g butter
Big blobs of Velvet Cloud sheep’s yogurt to garnish
Method
Prepare the nettles, wearing gloves fill sink with water and add some salt. Give them a good wash
In a saucepan cook the onion leek and potatoes, for 10 mins then add the stock and cook for another 10 mins. The potatoes should be tender and the stock reduced slightly.
Add the washed nettles and cook for 1 minute before adding cream and butter. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Blitz the soup until bright green. Serve with big blobs of creamy Velvet Cloud sheep’s milk yogurt and a slice of warm Velvet Cloud porridge bread.
