Nettle & Spinach Soup
This is a wonderful green springtime soup, using only young nettles. Young nettles are more delicate in flavour. There is an Irish song which includes a reference to nettles, ‘Down by the Glenside’, about the Fenian revolution in the 1860s after the Famine in Ireland. Fenians were young men who challenged the older politicians and there was an attempted revolution but it wasn’t successful. Quite a lot of them then emigrated to America. The song’s opening lines are: “Twas down by the glenside, I met an old woman, aplucking young nettles, she n’er saw me comin.” In the old days Irish people believed that the blood needed to be cleansed and they used young nettles in springtime in their broths, after the long winter with no sun. They also drank it as a brew. This soup is delicious, nourishing and has such a beautiful vibrant green colour, it is essential to blanch and refresh the spinach and nettle leaves.
Ingredients
Serves 6 - 8
• 900g fresh spinach, washed
• 2 handfuls of young nettle leaves, stems removed (using gloves) and thoroughly washed
• 115g butter
• 2 large onions, finely chopped
• 6 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 2 floury potatoes (e.g. Golden Wonder or Kerr’s Pink), peeled, cooked and diced
• 1 litre good quality vegetable stock (see recipe below also)
• Some freshly grated nutmeg (optional)
Serving suggestion: Serve with a swirl of pouring cream
Method
To blanch the spinach and nettle leaves, plunge them into boiling water with a little salt for 3 minutes. Drain and plunge into a bowl of iced water to refresh. In a large saucepan, melt the butter over a low heat. Add the onions and garlic and gently sweat with the lid on for 10 minutes or until soft, stirring occasionally. Add the cooked potatoes followed by the vegetable stock, turn up the heat and bring to the boil. Add in the spinach and nettles then reduce the heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Blitz the soup using a hand blender, or food processor in batches. Season the soup to taste, adding some freshly grated nutmeg if you’d like. Serve hot with a swirl of pouring cream on top.
Vegetable Stock
This a wonderful vegetable stock suitable for soups. It can be further reduced to one fifth to make a stock concentrate where only a very small amount is needed to enrich sauces as a natural flavour enhancer.
Ingredients
Makes 2 litres
• 2 tbsp clarified butter
• 400g onions, peeled and roughly chopped (keep the skins)
• 3 shallots, roughly chopped (keep the skins)
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 3 carrots, roughly chopped
• 3 sticks of celery, roughly chopped
• 2 leeks, cleaned and roughly chopped
• 1 fennel bulb, thinly sliced
• Zest of ½ lemon
• 100ml dry white wine
• 100ml Noilly Prat
• 3 sprigs of fresh thyme
• 3 sprigs of parsley • 3 litres cold water
Method
In a large tall stock pot, heat the butter over a low heat then add the onions, shallots and garlic, cover and sweat until soft but not coloured, stirring occasionally. Remove the lid, add the vegetables and lemon zest and cook until soft, stirring regularly to stop any caramelisation. Add the wine and Noilly Prat, turn up to a high heat and bring to the boil, then reduce by half, stirring occasionally. Mix in the onion and shallot skins and the herbs. Cover the vegetables well with the cold water. Bring to the boil over a high heat then reduce to a low heat and simmer gently for 2 hours, uncovered, skimming off any scum periodically. Strain the stock through a sieve into a deep container and stand in a sink of cold water to allow it to cool quickly. Store in the fridge for up to 2 days or in batches in the freezer for up to 3 months.