TOP 6 recipes with photos of cooking delicious dishes with nettles at home. Secrets and tips of chefs. Video recipes.
In early spring, nettle dishes, which are very diverse, become especially popular. The most famous traditional recipes are young nettle cabbage soup, nettle soup with egg, or nettle and sorrel soup. However, these are not the only nettle dishes that will fit perfectly into the spring menu. This material offers TOP-6 unusual recipes with photos of delicious dishes with nettles at home.
Culinary tips and secrets
- For use in cooking, greens are harvested from April to mid-July. Then the plant begins to bloom, and the leaves become coarse. Therefore, raw leaves in cooking are used only before flowering, and for hot dishes they can be harvested until late autumn. Also, nettles harvested before flowering contain maximum benefits.
- Collect nettle away from roads at least 300 m. Choose juicy twigs and leaves, without damage. It is best to harvest the plant in the morning when the night dew dries up.
- Young nettle leaves, collected in May and properly processed, will not burn. The old plant "bites", so in order not to burn yourself, collect it in protective rubber gloves.
- If you take the leaves collected after flowering for food, use only the upper tender leaves that are not fully open yet.
- After collecting the young sprigs of nettle, pour cold water for 15 minutes, scald the old ones and soak in boiling water for 5 minutes. Then the plant will become softer, bitterness will go away and will not burn.
- To keep the nettle's healing properties, add it to dishes a few minutes before cooking. Boil it for a maximum of 3 minutes, or simply scald it with boiling water.
- To preserve vitamin A in greens, cut them with a ceramic knife or tear with your hands.
Creamy rice soup
The most popular recipes with nettles are first courses. However, it can be used to cook not only cabbage soup or borscht, but also creamy nettle soup. It is delicious, hearty, aromatic and rich.
- Caloric content per 100 g - 69 kcal.
- Servings Per Container - 4-5
- Cooking time - 15 minutes
Ingredients:
- Chicken broth - 1 l
- Rice - 150 g
- Salt to taste
- Bulb onions - 2 pcs.
- Spices to taste
- Nettle - 1 kg
- Olive oil - 50 ml
- Ground black pepper - to taste
Cooking nettle cream soup with rice:
- Pour chicken broth into a saucepan, add rice, salt and boil until tender after boiling for about 15-20 minutes.
- Peel the onions, wash, cut into cubes and simmer in a skillet in butter until soft and golden. Then add the fried onions to the rice pot.
- Wash the nettle, chop it, put it in the broth and boil it for 5 minutes.
- Season the dish with salt, black pepper and spices to taste.
- Pour it into a blender bowl and grind it into a smooth puree.
- Serve creamy nettle soup with rice with croutons or croutons.
Casserole with rice, nettles and cheese
In addition to delicious nettle cabbage soup, you can prepare an equally appetizing second dish. An interesting recipe for casseroles with cheese and nettles diversifies the menu and will pleasantly surprise you with its taste.
Ingredients:
- Nettle - 700 g
- Rice - 50 g
- Cheese - 50 g
- Eggs - 3 pcs.
- Butter - 100 g
- Flour - 150 g
- Milk - 300 ml
- Salt - 0.5 tsp
- Ground black pepper - to taste
To make a casserole with rice, nettles and cheese:
- Put butter in a preheated pan and melt it. Add flour and fry until golden brown.
- Pre-boil the rice until cooked in salted water and add to the pan.
- Wash the nettles, chop and send after the rice.
- Pour milk into the products, salt, add spices and mix.
- Pour the eggs into a bowl and beat with a fork. Grate the cheese on a coarse grater, add to the eggs and mix.
- Pour the egg mixture into the pan with all the products and stir.
- Put the whole mass in a greased form and send to bake in a preheated oven to 180 ° C for 40 minutes.
- Serve the cooked casserole with rice, nettles and cheese with sour cream.
Fish cakes with nettles and vegetables
Fish cakes with a twist… with young nettles that add a touch of spice to the dish. The cutlets are very tender and tasty, fluffy and satisfying.
Ingredients:
- Hake or pollock (or any other white fish) - 1 kg
- Nettle - 400 g
- Bulb onions - 1 pc.
- Carrots - 2 pcs.
- Eggs - 2 pcs.
- Vegetable oil - for frying
- Butter - 1 tablespoon
- Salt to taste
- Flour - for breading
Cooking fish cakes with nettles and vegetables:
- Wash the hake or pollock and boil it almost until tender in salted water. Cool slightly, remove all bones with a ridge and twist through a meat grinder.
- Peel and wash carrots and onions. Grate the carrots on a coarse grater, chop the onion into thin quarter rings. Wash nettles and chop finely.
- Heat vegetable oil in a skillet and simmer onions, carrots and nettles for 5 minutes over medium heat.
- Add fish, soft butter, salt, black pepper to vegetables, add eggs and stir.
- Form into round patties and drench them in flour.
- Heat vegetable oil in a skillet and fry fish cakes with nettle and vegetables on both sides over medium heat.
Nettle honey muffins
The use of nettle in cooking is no secret to anyone. But sweet pastries with the addition of these herbs will surprise every eater. Honey cupcakes with young nettles are an unusual dessert perfect for a family weekend tea party.
Ingredients:
- Nettle - 100 g
- Flour - 300 g
- Honey - 250 g
- Butter - 225 g
- Treacle - 150 g
- Eggs - 3 pcs.
- Baking powder - 1 tsp
- Salt - 1 tsp
Making honey nettle muffins:
- Heat the butter, molasses and honey in a thick-bottomed saucepan. After the first bubbles appear, remove the pan from the heat and cool the contents.
- Add sifted flour, baking powder and salt to the creamy honey mass.
- Beat eggs with a mixer until fluffy, pour into the dough and mix well.
- Wash the nettle, dry it, grind it with a blender into a homogeneous puree and send it into the dough.
- Grease a baking dish with butter and pour out the dough.
- Send the honey nettle muffins to the preheated oven at 170 ° C and bake them until golden brown for 40 minutes. Check the readiness with a wooden splinter, it must be dry.
- Cover the finished baked goods with glaze.
Spring salad with nettles, wild garlic and eggs
Nettles are most beneficial in salads - fresh, healthy, with a special taste. It is important for the recipe to use only young leaves and do not forget to scald them with boiling water, otherwise they may slightly "bite" not only in the hands, but also on the tongue.
Ingredients:
- Nettle - bunch
- Ramson - half a bunch
- Radish - 7 pcs.
- Cucumbers - 1 pc.
- Eggs - 4 pcs.
- Lemon juice - 1 tsp
- Mayonnaise - 3 tablespoons
- Salt - a pinch
Cooking spring salad with nettles, wild garlic and eggs:
- Wash the nettle, put it in a bowl and fill it with boiling water for 1 minute, otherwise it will cook and all the nutrients will evaporate. After the nettle acquires a beautiful emerald hue, remove the nettle leaves from the boiling water, rinse with cold water and chop finely.
- Wash ramson, dry and chop.
- Wash the cucumber and radish and cut into thin quarter rings.
- Boil eggs hard-boiled, peel and cut into large cubes.
- Stir in lemon juice, mayonnaise and salt for dressing.
- Place all the ingredients in a bowl and season with the sauce.
- Stir the spring salad well and serve.
Nettle sauce
Sauces for the table are prepared not only from tomatoes, sour cream, mayonnaise … but also from nettles. This wonderful spicy nettle sauce with enough vitamins goes with fried potatoes, spaghetti, rice, or simply spread over a slice of bread. Even young nettles can be substituted for basil greens in the famous Pesto sauce.
Ingredients:
- Nettle - 500 g
- Bulb onions - 1 pc.
- Vegetable oil - 4 tablespoons
- Flour - 2 tablespoons
- Sour cream - 100 g
- Salt to taste
- Ground black pepper - to taste
Making the nettle sauce:
- Peel the onions, wash, cut into small cubes and fry in vegetable oil in a pan until soft.
- Add flour to the pan, stir and simmer for 5 minutes.
- Wash the nettle, pour boiling water over for 2 minutes, squeeze, cut and add to the pan.
- Next, pour in sour cream, season the food with salt, black pepper, spices and simmer over low heat until the mass thickens.
- Grind the finished nettle sauce in a blender into a smooth puree.
What can be cooked from nettles
The hot green beauty is excellent not only in first courses, casseroles, cutlets, muffins … Nettles are delicious in many other dishes.
- A cold soup is prepared from young shoots and leaves of nettle on a hot day.
- A young plant with green onions and a boiled egg will make an excellent filling for pies.
- If you brew green leaves with boiling water, you get an excellent tonic tea.
- Green pancakes are obtained on the basis of nettle with an interesting taste.
- Homogeneous nettle puree in combination with cheese is suitable for filling stuffed eggs.
- A great breakfast idea is an omelet with nettles.
- Freshly squeezed nettle juice will be helpful.
In order to cook your favorite dishes with nettles all year round, the green plant must be prepared for future use. It can be dried, salted, frozen, or pickled.
Video recipes
Nettle Pesto Sauce
Nettle salad
