I actually posted this recipe for stinging nettle pesto last year, but since nettle season is upon us again and it’s my best nettle recipe, I thought I should post it one more time! Next year I’ll try to be more creative – I promise!
Other ways in which to use your nettles include soups, stews, spanakopita, quiches, and stir-fries. Basically, any place you would use spinach or other dark leafy greens, you can use nettles. You can also dry it and infuse it in teas or put the dried nettles in your dishes too. I also like to add a little of the dry stuff to homemade gomasio.
Nettles make my blood feel clean. I drank them in quantities after my births to replenish my iron stores and drank it throughout my pregnancies for increased health benefits. Nettles are a highly recommended and gentle health-inducing herb. To read more about nettles, how to recognize, handle, harvest and prepare them, see this post.
Nettle Pesto
3 packed cups of fresh stinging nettle
2 cloves garlic
1/2 cup raw cashews, almonds or pine nuts
3/4 cup fresh parsley
3/4 cup parmasan cheese
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup melted butter
salt to taste
Combine all ingredients in a food processor or blender and whir until a desired consistency is reached.
Are you familiar with nettles? What do you like to do with them?
Posted at Food Renegade, Designs by Gollum, Ann Kroeker, Momtrends, and The Urban Momtographer.
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Tags: nettle pesto, stinging nettles, vegetarian
I am curious — do you pick the nettles from your backyard or purchase them from a grocery as you would lettuce and other leafy greens? We don’t have nettles here and I’ve never seen one! I tend to look at nettles in a bad light as they remind me Eliza of the fairy tale – The Wild Swans.
.-= Jenny´s last blog ..Expanded Breastfeeding Law – Part 1 =-.
Ha ha, I read this as Nestle Pesto and I was like, Dude, way to be unsupportive of the boycott.
Ohhh, ok, now I get it. I have never used nettles ever, but I love pesto. If you say it’s good, I will have to give it a try!
.-= Lauren @ HoboMama´s last blog ..Wordless Wednesday: Toddler collage =-.
Those looked yummy, would be good for my KimChi.
.-= selfsagacity´s last blog ..Kim-Chi with Daikon =-.
Wow that is so cool that you can cook with stinging nettles- I had no clue they were edible! I remember in France there was a plant that always grew near patches of sting nettle that the locals called “dr.plant” whose leaves neutralized the sting if you rubbed them where you’d gotten stung. Pretty useful stuff! How do you avoid getting stung when you are cooking with it?
.-= Maman A Droit´s last blog ..My Almost-Friends =-.
Netlle Pesto! Amazing! I have loads of neetles outside… Im gonna make some now.
I have never heard of this before – never knew you could cook with nettles!
@Jenny – They grow wild all over the place. I have picked them in the woods, a farmer’s field, someone’s yard and at the end of my road growing against someone’s barn. I have never seen them for sale at a grocery store, probably because stores don’t want to be liable for someone getting stung and when the sting goes away they are pretty limp and not very attractive. Although a whole foods cafe connected to our health food store here cooks nettles in some of their dishes. Quiche, soups and savory tarts come to mind.
@Hobo_Mama – Ha ha ha! That’s halarious! Best laugh of my morning! (Does Nestle even make pesto?)
@Mama A Droit – You have to pick them wearing gloves like in the photo. Then I get home and toss them a sink of water and using tongs I take them out and trim the leaves from the stalks. You *can* eat the stalks but they are pretty stringy. Then toss the leaves into whatever you are making and the sting goes away as they cook. The sting also goes away when you puree them in a food processor or the like. Although sometimes it will make your tongue tingle a bit. Not hurt though. Not at all.
@Mrs. Jen B – Happy to teach you something new!
Wow! This is so fun b/c we love nettles pesto!
I haven’t made it in a few years but back when we were apprenticing on a medicinal herb farm we made nettles everything and I remember being tickled pink making nettles pesto! Yummm!
I’ve been drinking Nettles infusions this pregnancy to help with my low iron.
I am too afraid of nettles, to be honest. I like the idea of eating foraged food, but I have been stung a few too many times. But I am totally impressed that you do not share my cowardice in this regard.
And I am totally laughing out loud at the lovely HoboMama’s comment. It would be pretty surprising to see you talking about Nestle pesto, I must say.
.-= Amber´s last blog ..Why I’m Participating in Earth Hour =-.
[...] Sallmon for Passover 9. Chaya- Apple Sweet Potato Kugel for Passover and all Year 10. Hemmed In 11. Breastfeeding Moms Unite! (Nettle Pesto) 12. Alison @ Hospitality Haven (Almond [...]
Whaaaat? You can EAT those pesky plants?!?! What a great way to get revenge on them for the many times they have stung my kids! We have them in abundance in the woods behind our house. I’ll pick some tomorrow! They have iron? Who knew! What do they taste like?
And what makes them sting? Is it an actual nettle, or a chemical on the plant? What makes the sting go away when processed? I’m so curious!
.-= Melissa´s last blog ..The Van =-.
I’m so glad you posted this. We have nettle on our farm (and cacti), and I’ve wanted to try this recipe. Thanks for sharing it with the Foodie Friday gang!
@Melissa – Nettle leaves and stems are covered with brittle, hollow, silky hairs that contain three chemicals, a histamine that irritates skin, acetylcholine which causes a burning feeling, and serotonin. When brushing up against the plant with any bare skin, either the legs, or the arms, will result in a rash similiar to poison ivy (from Wiki). I think they taste great. Like spinach but stronger. I especially love them in soups and stirfries when they take on other tastes. The heat or crushing it removes the sting before you eat it. Other than that I doon’t have a cure for the rash itself except time and soothing gels like Aloe. Yellow dock is said to help though although it’s enver nearby when I need it to have ever tried.
.-= Melodie´s last blog ..Poems About The Joys of Breastfeeding =-.
Big LOLs at @hobo_mama on the Nestle Pesto. That would be bloody hilarious.
Such a West Coast thing, I think, to eat nettles. I remember doing that as a kid growing up on Hornby Island. We also foraged oysters and huckleberries. Yum!
.-= CaroLyn´s last blog ..Breastfeeding Wasn’t Painful =-.