Seat of Our Pants

Here’s a local Norrbotten specialty for you readers out there: Stinging nettle soup. It’s an ancient recipe, and while stinging nettle doesn’t sound like something you’d want to eat it is actually an extremely nutritious plant, rich in minerals and antioxidants. Oh and it’s delicious. You need:

1 qt. of stinging nettles – the young leaves on the new plants, nothing else (or you will regret it). Pick them while wearing gloves.

2 shallots

1 tbsp vegetable oil

½ qt chicken (or vegetable) stock

pinch of fresh thyme

2 tbsp milk

2 tbsp corn starch

a splash of cream

salt

pepper

Put the nettles in a saucepan full of boiling water and let them boil for two minutes. Strain. Chop the nettles finely. Finely chop the shallots. Add oil to a large saucepan and let the shallots fry gently for a short while. Put the nettles in and let them fry with the shallots for another minute on medium heat. Add the stock and thyme and bring to a boil. In a cup, mix milk and corn starch together and add the mixture to the boiling soup while stirring. Add cream, salt and pepper to taste. Garnish with a sprig of thyme and serve with steamed broccoli, egg halves and freshly toasted bread.

Note on the Stinging Nettle: it’s Latin name is Urtica Dioica, and it grows all over Europe, Asia, Africa and North America. It has medicinal qualities and is generally a total do-gooder for you. It looks like this:

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