Nettle Dip With Cream Cheese And Avocado
Make the most of spring foraging with this smooth and creamy nettle dip recipe. It’s nutritious, delicious and contains only five ingredients. Swap the nettles for spinach if you like, it works beautifully either way. Ideal as a dip, a spread or a base for roasted vegetables.
This post may contain affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. See my cookie and privacy statement for further details.
When the nettle season arrives in early spring, I get really excited. Nettles are so abundant and nutritious and once you acquire the taste for them, they’re really delicious too. When I’ve had my fix of nettle soup, my thoughts turn to other things. This time it’s a dip.
Dive Right In
- Why Make Nettle Dip?
- How To Pick Nettles Without Getting Stung
- Cream Cheese And Avocado Nettle Dip
- Ingredients, Additions And Substitutions
- How To Make Cream Cheese And Avocado Dip
- Other Nettle Recipes You Might Like
- Keep In Touch
- Pin It
- The Recipe
Why Make Nettle Dip?
- Adaptable – No nettles? Use spinach instead. Prefer a simpler taste? Swap the pesto for fresh garlic.
- Creamy and flavoursome – The combination of cream cheese, avocado and pesto (or garlic) creates a smooth, rich texture with plenty of flavour.
- Nutrient-packed – Nettles are rich in iron, calcium and vitamins A, C and K. Avocado adds healthy fats, making this dip both wholesome and satisfying.
- Quick and easy – Made with just five ingredients and ready in minutes, it’s perfect for a speedy lunch or snack.
- Seasonal and sustainable – A great way to enjoy wild nettles when they’re at their best in spring. Foraging is free and it’s hard to get food more locally than this.
- Versatile – Serve it as a dip, spread it on toast or crackers or use it as a vibrant base for roasted or grilled vegetables.
How To Pick Nettles Without Getting Stung
Nettles have been used as food, medicine and even fabric for centuries. During World War I the Germans used cloth made of nettles to make their uniforms as cotton and linen were hard to come by.
In the UK, stinging nettles start popping up all over the place in March and will carry on into the summer. However nettles get stringy and fibrous quite quickly, so it’s best to pick from newly emerged ones in March and April. You can tell they’re young as they look fresh and green.
Nettles grow in hedges, alongside rivers, the edges of woodland and open fertile ground. Try to find a patch that’s away from busy roads as roadside nettles are likely to be polluted.
If you have a patch in your garden, just keep cutting them back and they’ll carry on growing new leaves right through the summer.
Unless you’re hardcore and don’t mind the odd sting, it’s best to forage nettles with a pair of rubber gloves or scissors. CT always picks them with his bare hands.
Pick just the tips from young stinging nettles, that’s the first four to six leaves. Either pluck them with gloved hands or snip them off into a container with scissors. I use both methods depending on where I am, and I don’t get stung.
For maximum nutrition, it’s best to use the nettle tops as soon after picking as you can. But if you’ve picked too many, or it’s too late in the day, they will store in a sealed bag in your fridge’s salad drawer. They’ll keep for a couple of days or so.
Once steamed or blanched, nettles lose their sting completely. They have a similar flavour to spinach, but with an earthier, slightly peppery taste
Cream Cheese and Avocado Nettle Dip
I already have a vegan green dip made with nettles, but this one is made with cream cheese and it’s quite different. The combination of cheese and avocado give it a really creamy mouthfeel. It also contains more nettles, so it’s even more nutritious.
Made with cream cheese, avocado, pesto and lemon, it’s the sort of recipe you can play around with. Add more cream cheese, avocado or pesto or reduce the amount of nettles according to taste or what you have to hand. You can, of course, just swap the nettles for spinach.
The amount given in the recipe at the bottom of this post is for four to eight people. How far it stretches depends on what you’re using it for and whether it’s a snack or a meal.
Ingredients, Additions And Substitutions
Apart from salt and pepper, you only need five ingredients to make this nettle dip. These are nettles, cream cheese, avocado, pesto and lemon.
Cream Cheese
You can use any type of cream cheese you like for this recipe. Go with your favourite or whatever you happen to have in the fridge. My preference is for full fat cream cheese, though ricotta is really good too.
Pesto
Pesto adds additional flavour and richness to this nettle dip recipe. I use homemade wild garlic pesto as wild garlic is in season at the same time as nettles. But any type of garlicky pesto will work.
If you don’t have any pesto to hand, just swap it for two cloves of garlic.
Stinging Nettles
Use freshly picked nettle tops for this recipe. The sting disappears as soon as they’re cooked, so there’s no need for concern on that front.
Although I like making this dip when stinging nettles are in season, spinach makes a good stand-in. Spinach is perhaps not as nutritious as nettles, but it still packs a punch.
How To Make Cream Cheese And Avocado Nettle Dip
Like most dips, this one is quick and easy to make. Even though you have to cook the nettles, they only take a few minutes. If you’re a fast worker you could have this on the table within ten minutes. It takes me fifteen.
Please refer to the recipe card at the bottom of this post for cooking temperatures and quantities of ingredients used.
Step 1. Wash Nettles
Wearing washing up gloves to avoid getting stung, wash the nettles well in cold water. Place in a colander to drain slightly.
Step 2. Cook Nettles
Whilst the nettles are still wet, transfer them to a suitable sized lidded saucepan. Heat the pan, with the lid on, so that the nettles steam in the water that clings to them.
Cook for five minutes, by which time the nettles should be wilted and have turned a dark green. If it looks as though the pan is drying out, add a splash of water.
Drain the nettles of any excess water. Using a spatula or back of a spoon, press the nettles to remove any further water they might contain.
Keep hold of any drained water. It’s really nutritious. I just drink it, but it’s really good for adding to sauces, soups and stews.
Step 3. Blitz
Cut the avocado in half, remove the stone then scoop out the flesh. Place the flesh in a food processor together with the cream cheese, pesto and lemon. Finally add the steamed and squeezed nettle tops.
Blitz until smooth and creamy.
For an ultra smooth finish, use a power blender if you have one. I tend to use my mini food processor (affiliate link). Whilst it doesn’t blitz the nettles quite as finely, it’s a lot easier to extract all of the dip.
Top Tips
If liked, grate the zest into the food processor bowl for additional flavour and freshness. If you do this, make sure the lemon is organic or at least unwaxed.
This dip has a pronounced nettle flavour. If you’re new to nettles you might want to use fewer nettle tops. Conversely just double the quantities of the other ingredients.
If you use garlic rather than pesto, add an extra pinch of salt.
Step 4. Serve
You can eat the dip straight away. If the consistency is a bit loose though, you might want to put it in the fridge for half an hour or so to firm up.
Spoon into a bowl and drizzle a little olive oil over the top, if liked. Serve with crackers, tortilla chips or crudités. Alternatively, spread it directly onto bread, toast or crackers.
Nettle dip will keep in the fridge for two to three days. Store it in an airtight container. If the liquid separates at all, just give it a stir before using.
What To Eat With Nettle Dip
Keep your guests guessing and use this dip as an appetiser with crudités and corn chips. It also works well as part of a buffet type meal. In fact it’s great for parties. Just accompany it with a couple of contrasting dips, such as hummus and roasted tomato dip.
It’s delicious spread on toast just as it is. But it’s even better topped with slices of hard boiled egg and a sprinkling of chilli salt.
Try it as a bed for roasted vegetables. It’s particularly good with cubes of roasted squash or this recipe for roasted Mediterranean veg.
You can also use it as a pasta sauce, just thin it down a little by adding some of the starchy pasta cooking water.
Other Nettle Recipes You Might Like
- Creamy butterbeans & mushrooms
- Green flatbreads
- Nettle powder
- Nettle cakes
- Spanakopita with wild greens
- Spring tonic nettle smoothie
Keep in Touch
Thank you for visiting Tin and Thyme. If you make this nettle dip, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below. Do you have any recommendations or tips for making these cakes?
Please rate the recipe. If you post pictures of your creations on social media, tag me @choclette8 so I can see them.
For more delicious and nutritious recipes follow me on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Flipboard or Pinterest. And don’t forget to SUBSCRIBE to my weekly newsletter. Or why not join the conversation in our Healthy Vegetarian Whole Food Recipes Facebook Group?
If you’d like more dip recipes, follow the link and you’ll find I have quite a lot of them. All delicious and nutritious, of course.
Choclette x
Nettle Dip. PIN IT.
Nettle Dip With Cream Cheese And Avocado
Equipment
Ingredients
- 100 g nettle tops or spinach
- 1 ripe avocado medium sized or use ½ a large one
- 125 g full fat cream cheese
- 2 tsp green pesto (I used wild garlic pesto) or 2 cloves garlic
- 1 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 1 pinch sea or rock salt
- good grinding of black pepper
Instructions
- Wash the nettles well, then transfer to a suitable sized lidded saucepan. Heat the pan so that the nettles steam. The water from washing them should be enough to cook them, but if the pan looks like drying out, add a splash of water. Cook for five minutes, by which time the nettles should be wilted and have turned a dark green.100 g nettle tops
- Press any water out of them using a spatula and transfer to a food processor.
- Add the remaining ingredients and blitz until you have a smooth dip or spread. For a really smooth finish, use a power blender if you have one. If it looks a bit loose, put it in the fridge for half an hour or so and it should firm up.1 ripe avocado, 125 g full fat cream cheese, 2 tsp green pesto, 1 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice, 1 pinch sea or rock salt, good grinding of black pepper
- Taste test and add more salt, pepper or lemon juice if you think it needs it.
Notes
Nutrition Estimate
This post contains affiliate links which are marked with an asterisk* or (affiliate link). If you buy through a link, it won’t cost you any more, but I might get a small commission. Thank you for your support of the brands and organisations that help to keep Tin and Thyme blithe and blogging.
I haven’t had the pleasure of eating nettles although when I lived in the UK they must have been nearby. No nettles here so I will have to wait for the opportunity to arise in the future. Spinach will have to fill the gap in the meantime. Your dish looks really appealing and I really like ‘dip’ foods. Thanks Choclette:))
Ah Mary, you missed a treat. They would most certainly have been around. Having said that, although I’ve been making nettle soup for more years than I care to remember, people are only just now beginning to realise you can eat them.
no nettles around here so spinach it would have to be 🙂
sherry
I do remember seeing giant nettles when we were in Australia and they looked rather scary.