Nettles probably wouldn’t make it into the top 10 favourite plants of many gardeners. They’re a weed – invasive, perennial, difficult to get rid of and, as if that wasn’t enough, they have a nasty sting… do you need any more reasons to eradicate them from your garden?
But nettles have their good points too… no, really they do. In their defence, nettles are fantastically important wildlife plants, providing food for lots of native insects. Nettles are the larval food plant for the beautiful comma, peacock, red admiral and small tortoiseshell butterflies. Their eggs are laid on a patch of nettle plants in a sunny spot, where the caterpillars hatch out to happily munch their way through the leaves. Although I must admit that in all the years I’ve had nettles in the garden, I’ve never seen eggs or caterpillars on them – maybe this year…
The early spring growth of nettles attracts aphids – the soft, fresh green leaves are full of the sappy liquid they love. Aphids might not be something many gardeners would plan to attract, but they provide food for hoverflies and ladybirds, helping to build up populations of these beneficial insects ready to tackle pest outbreaks later in the year.
And it’s not just the garden wildlife that can enjoy the fresh nettle growth early in the year. Nettles have long been used as a tonic in spring. They are rich in minerals and have a high vitamin C content. Gather the young leaves (wearing gloves of course!), wash them well and cook in boiling water for a couple of minutes. The leaves lose their sting once cooked, and can be used like spinach in risottos, soups, frittata, pasta dishes… Nettle tea is said to be good for strengthening hair, skin and bones (steep washed young leaves in boiling water for a couple of minutes before straining), and makes a good plant feed too (soak crushed nettles in rainwater for three or four weeks – away from the house, it does get smelly, dilute 1 part nettle tea to 10 parts water and use to feed plants).
If you want to have a go at growing nettles, but don’t want them getting out of control, there are ways of keeping them confined to one area, or trying to at least. Sink an old bucket with holes in the bottom or a large pot into the ground and plant the nettles into this to restrict the roots. Cut the plants back before they set seed in summer – this has two advantages, it stops the nettles seeding all over the garden and encourages fresh growth.
We had our first nettle harvest of the year this weekend – not a huge amount, but enough to add to some leeks from the garden and a tin of cannellini bean to make a bowl of tasty, garlicky beans. Definitely a seasonal dish – I’m linking it to this month’s Simple and in Season being hosted by the lovely Louisa at Chez Foti. This blog challenge always produces a great collection of seasonal recipes – and anyone can join in, why not take a look and maybe submit your own seasonal favourite?
And if you have a favourite nettle dish I’d love to hear about it – always looking for new ideas…
Nettles & Beans
150g fresh nettle leaves
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, plus more to drizzle over the beans
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 leek, finely sliced
1x400g tin cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
pinch of dried chilli flakes
2 tsp sumac
sea salt
Wash the nettle leaves, then cook them for a couple of minutes in boiling water. Drain the nettles, retaining ¼ cup of the cooking water, and refresh the leaves in cold water.
Heat the oil in a medium sized pan. Add the garlic and leeks and cook on a gently heat for three or four minutes. Then add the cannellini beans and chilli flakes, and continue cooking to warm the beans through.
While the beans are cooking, squeeze any excess water from the nettles and chop them finely. Add to the pan, stir and heat until everything is nice and hot. Stir in the sumac and some salt to taste.
Remove the bean and nettle mix from the heat. Tip into a serving bowl and drizzle with a little olive oil.
The Garden Deli 
I agree with all the negative comments you have made – as to the positives well even though they may be beneficial to insects etc. I personally think the negatives outweigh the positives – I’ll leave it to someone else to grow them – I can always raid the hedgerows if I feel a desperate need to eat them – which I don’t! Your dish did sound interesting though – did you enjoy it?
The dish was very good yes – but then we really like cannellini beans. Usually we have them with cooked with oil, lots of garlic, salt and rosemary – might be a better option if nettles aren’t to your taste!
I am really determined to harvest some nettles at the allotment this year for eating. I picked some young ones last year but never managed to use them. Looking at your garlicky beans has reminded me to get nettle picking!
Hope you enjoy your nettles this year. Soup is another good way to use them – when the children were younger they thought it was really cool to be eating nettles!
I like them a little bit more now… just a little bit x
They do have some redeeming features!
Oh, yes. I love nettles. I have some nettle- violet tea brewing for me for when I get home tonight.
Michael
Nettle-violet tea sounds like an interesting combination, a nice welcome home.
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What a lovely, and extremely seasonal, recipe. Thanks so much for linking up to Simple and in Season. Like you I’m a huge Cannellini bean fan and I now feel compelled to try your Nettles and Beans! How wonderful. I’ve made quite a few dustbins of ‘nettle tea’ fertiliser for the garden over the last two summers, and am totally convinced of their powers – but it doesn’t half whiff!
I use nettle tea and diluted liquid from the wormery in the garden – nettles definitely win on the terrible smell front!
Great post, I’m a nettle fan too. I got banned from having stinky potions lurking around the garden and now put them straight on the compost heap to add nutrients. I love using nettles in Italian recipes with ricotta (instead or as well as spinach) stuffing pasta shells, torta verde etc. Your bean recipe looks wonderful though, will give it a try.
Stuffed pasta shells with nettles – will have to remember that one!
Sounds very nice, Sarah – must try using nettles this year, as we have a patch near our old compost heap… no sign of them yet though!
The nettles here seem to be ahead of all the other weeds this year, well apart from the creeping buttercup.
I am a great fan of nettles, although I have never actually eaten any. I also like pulling them up when they get a little over-enthusiastic. That they are easy – and actually quite enjoyable to weed is another one of their pros.
If it wasn’t for the sting, I’m sure more people would give nettles a bit of space in their garden – would be great for the butterflies if they did!
There are heaps of nettles at my parents place and every year I try to pluck up the courage to cook some. I haven’t managed it yet but maybe this year – if I do (my main concern is stings during harvest) i will make this – I too love cannelini beans.
Big, tough gloves are what you need for harvesting Liz! Although I did read that nettle stings are good for stimulating the circulation…
Mmh I love nettles risotto! So delicate and surprising taste! I suggest to try it with a bit of single cream..
Nettle risotto sounds great – I’ll be cooking some once the nettles get into full growth (and will add some cream too!)
Good to know that you can use nettles in the same way you as spinach. The dish sounds so appealing and very akin to Spring/Summer dining – Delicious!
We just need the spring/summer weather to go with the dining now!
Nettles – something I always have a glut of. Lovely piece. Do you know if the young spring leaves are tastier than later ‘crops’ or if the leaf goes bitter after flowering? thanks for the idea!
According to Jekka McVicar the older leaves “can cause kidney damage and symptoms of poisoning. The plants must be cooked thoroughly to be safe.” Don’t know about the taste, but this warning has been enough to put me off eating the older growth!
Heavens. Yes indeed it is enough to put me off too. Thanks for the tip
You’re welcome – the last thing I want is someone coming down with symptoms of poisoning after reading my blog!
I’ve been making nettle soup for several years now, with no adverse effects whatsoever. The top six inches are best to use, away from the roadside or your own garden. I soak them overnight in a bucket of salted water, ready for use the following day, after a good rinse. Great with potatoes, carrots,(colours are stunning together) red onions and garlic; plus a generous dollop of plain yogurt stirred in just before serving. A free (almost) and extremely nourishing meal. What’s not to like? An added bonus; simmer a few saved leaves with one or two rosemary sprigs for around 20-30 minutes, strain and decant into a washed, sterilized coffee jar, for a fantastic conditioning hair rinse. Can be left in. I’m still using a jar made in 2009 and the smell is heavenly! Nettle soup freezer very well. I make a huge batch each spring to have on hand throughout the year. Round ice cream tubs (re-cycling!) are ideal for freezing soup in. Don’t forget the gloves!
I never thought to freeze nettle soup – great idea, because they’re only usable for a limited season. I like the idea of adding them to other veg too, I can see that I’ll be harvesting lots of nettles this spring! Thanks for all your suggestions.
These are gorgeous photos! And the recipe sounds delicious. Thanks for posting Sarah.
Thanks Anne! I now have a whole list of nettle recipes to try, just need the weather to warm up a bit so that they can start growing again…
Hi Sarah – just to let you know we tried this dish yesterday. Replacing the nettles with spinach and using lemon juice instead of sumac (couldn’t get it at market) and fresh chilli instead of dried. We served it with some grilled fish and it was really tasty. Worked as a really good accompaniment for us. Thanks for the inspiration 🙂
Good to hear the idea worked – thanks for letting me know! I think fresh chilli may well be even better than dried with the beans.
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Love this. We’ve got a secret garden at the bottom of our large garden. We left it to go au natural intentionally, for our little girl and to attract ‘wildlife’. Looking forward to experimenting with nettles 🙂
I feel like this post should now carry a health warning – a friend was telling me yesterday how she came out in a rash after eating nettle soup (not made by me thank goodness!)… so if you are going to try cooking with them, be careful to eat only the very young leaves. But if that hasn’t put you off, Carl Legge has a great recipe for nettle gnocchi here – http://www.carllegge.com/2011/04/nettle-gnocchi-recipe/