Nettle Soup: Spring Back Into Vigour With This Cleansing Vegan Tonic

A delicious light velvety smooth nettle soup. It’s perfect as a spring cleanser. Don’t tell what’s in it and you can keep everyone guessing as to the mystery ingredient.

When spring finally emerges, I like to banish lethargy and listlessness and that’s when I start to crave the vitalising, cleansing effect of nettles. I normally have my first bowl of nettle soup in March, but I was a bit late in foraging any from our plot this year. When the day dawned bright and fair on Sunday morning, I was determined to go nettle picking – and I did.

Nettles as Medicine and Food

Nettles have been used both as a food and as medicine for centuries. They’re said to stimulate the digestion and purify the blood. Our ubiquitous stinging friends are rich in vitamins A and C as well as trace minerals: iron, potassium, manganese and calcium. The young nettles emerge in spring and this is the best time to gather and eat them. They taste a bit like spinach, but nicer.

Nettle soup is the easiest and most common way to consume this stinging weed. Don’t worry, it won’t bring you out in a rash. When nettles are cooked, they lose their sting. At this time of year, I use them as a general spinach substitute and add them to all sorts of dishes, including stir fries, quiches and curries.

I know nettles are not to everyone’s taste, but I suspect not many would turn down a bowl of this soup, especially if they didn’t know what it was made of. My mother has surprised visitors on many an occasion over the years by revealing what the soup was after they’d consumed and enjoyed it.

Foraging for Nettles

For most purposes, it’s best to take only the nettle tips when foraging as these are the tenderest. Older nettles and leaves can be tough. I tend to take the top four to six leaves. Unless you’re happy to grasp the nettle firmly and pick them with your bare hands in CT fashion, it’s best to wear rubber gloves or snip them into a basket with a pair of scissors.

Spring Tonic Nettle Soup

The soup is quick and easy to make. Fry up an onion, a leek, garlic and a potato, then add the nettles and water. Simmer for 15 minutes or so, then blitz with a blender.

I used my power blender which turns out a particularly smooth soup. Whatever you use though, you should find the nettle soup has a lovely velvety mouth feel. I make this soup dairy free as I like to think of it as a spring tonic. But you could always use butter instead of oil and add a spoon of yoghurt or crème fraîche at the end to make it a bit more special.

It’s hard to see from the photos, but I gave a bit more pizzaz to this nettle soup by drizzling a little wild garlic oil over it when serving. Wild garlic oil is fantastic and I’ve been using it a lot since I spotted a recipe for it at Food to Glow a few weeks ago.

Nettle soup also goes exceptionally well with a slice or two of this healthy cottage cheese loaf. It’s particularly high in protein, so makes for a well balanced meal. It contains eggs though, so isn’t vegan. These high protein easy spelt breadsticks also make a fine accompaniment.

Fat Free Nettle Soup

If you have a soup maker or Froothie Evolve power blender, you can omit the frying stage. Just add all ingredients except the oil and follow the soup making instructions. In the Froothie Evolve I use the smooth soup function and it takes thirty minutes. The end result is so smooth and delicious, we don’t miss the oil at all. In fact, that’s how I now make it every time.

Other Nettle Recipes You Might Like

• Cupcakes – lemon, nettle and white chocolate cupcakes via Tin and Thyme
• Dip – nettle dip and vegan green dip via Tin and Thyme
• Flatbread – green flatbreads with wild greens via Tin and Thyme
• Pasta – nettle & feta ravioli via The Hedge Comber
• Pizza – foraged nettle permie pizza via Zeb Bakes
• Powder – nettle powder via Tin and Thyme
• Quiche – nettle and cotehill blue cheese nettle quiche via Belleau Kitchen
• Risotto – stinging nettle risotto via A Seasonal Veg Table
• Smoothie – Spring tonic nettle smoothie via Tin and Thyme

Keep in Touch

If you’d like more spring recipes or soup recipes, follow the links and you’ll find I have quite a lot of them. All delicious, of course.

Choclette x

Nettle Soup – PIN IT

Nettle Soup – The Recipe

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5 from 2 votes

Nettle Soup (vegan)

A delicious and nutritious light velvety smooth vegan soup that will keep everyone guessing as to the mystery ingredient.

Cook ModeToggle to keep screen awake

Prep Time10 minutes mins

Cook Time20 minutes mins

Total Time30 minutes mins

Course: Lunch

Cuisine: British

Keyword: foraged food, healthy, nettles, spring

Servings: 4 people

Calories: 100kcal

Author: Choclette @ Tin and Thyme

Equipment

• power blender

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 small onion roughly chopped
• 1 leek roughly chopped
• 1 clove garlic roughly chopped
• 1 floury potato medium sized – roughly chopped
• 125 g nettle tops well washed
• 1 litre water
• 2 tsp tamari (affiliate link)
• good grating of nutmeg
• freshly ground black pepper to taste
• wild garlic oil (optional)
• chives (optional)
• natural yoghurt (optional)

Metric – US Customary

Instructions

• In a large saucepan, fry the onion, leeks and garlic in the olive oil over a moderate heat for 5 minutes.
• Add the potatoes and fry for a further 5 minutes.
• Add the nettle tops, water and tamari. Bring to the boil, then reduce to a simmer for 15 minutes.
• Grate in a little nutmeg and grind in some black pepper, then blitz with a blender. Taste for seasoning and add a little more tamari if needed.
• Serve with a drizzle of wild garlic oil and some snipped chives if liked. Or add a spoonful of yoghurt.

Notes

You can use ½ to 1 tsp salt instead of tamari, but it won’t have quite the same depth of flavour. 

If you don’t have a leek, just leave it out and use a large onion instead of a small one.

Please note: calories and other nutritional information are per serving. They’re approximate and will depend on exact ingredients used.

Nutrition Estimate

Calories: 100kcal | Carbohydrates: 15.8g | Protein: 9.8g | Fat: 4.4g | Saturated Fat: 0.5g | Sodium: 187mg | Potassium: 860mg | Fiber: 15g | Sugar: 2.3g | Calcium: 720mg | Iron: 2.2mg

Tried this recipe?Leave a comment below letting us know how you got on and do share a photo on Instagram. Tag @choclette8 or use hashtag #tinandthyme.

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I’m sending my nettle soup off to No Croutons Required at Tinned Tomatoes.

I use my Optimum Blenders* for smoothies, spreads, sauces and even chocolate making. The post contains affiliate links which are marked with an asterisk*. If you buy through a link, it won’t cost you any more, but I’ll get a small commission. Thank you for supporting the brands and organisations that help to keep Tin and Thyme blithe and blogging. Opinions are, as always, my own.