Stinging Soup

Had bit of a role reversal yesterday, Faye sanded down the stairs, lounge windows and then painted it all while I took Max for a stroll round the roads, we then went shopping and off to the park. When we got back I made nettle soup. Had a great day, I hate decorating !

Nettle soup, yep, heard Chris Evans talking bout it on Friday radio 2 and thought MMMmmm I could do that so on Saturday morning we collected the nettles. Like a fool I forgot the gloves !

Best time to pick nettles is now and until the end of April while they are young. Try to just take the tops off so that they continue to grow.

To make it I used a Veg Stock, potato grated, 4 small carrots grated, an onion, 2 sticks of celery, some butter, Garlic, Ginger, some spinich and of course a small bag of nettles.

First of all I washed the nettles and took them off the tough stalks, I then fried the garlic, celery, onion and ginger up a bit in the butter. Chucked in the carrot and potato and some stock while I boiled or the fancy word might be blanched the nettles for 2 mins in a little water. I then added this to the pain and bolied, once bolied I simmered for approx 10 mins and added some salt / pepper and a handful of spinach to help with the colour. Left to cool and liquidised it. Heated it up and served with a spoon of creme fraiche and some grated nutmug. Bloody good it was !!
The Nettles


The ingredients


The green soup


We are lucky to have Ashridge woods near us and here is a shot of Faye, Max and Jasper the dog from Sunday.

Went to the footy on Saturday and have to say i was shocked that some fans actually booed Ben Watson for taking the penalty. Fuck knows who else was meant to take it and I'm glad he rammed it down the throats of those morons by scoring. Well done Ben !!!