On Stinging Nettles

I ate stinging nettles for the first time yesterday. You pull the tops and blanch them in boiling water or stock for one minute before you add them in.

I can report that they have a durability, a weight to them that you do not get from your average salad leaf. It is not an unpleasant. I don’t think.

Lettuce leaves have practically no taste at all. As for the nettle, I found it had just a note of bitterness under a well-rounded umami tone.

In many respects it could be a distant cousin of seaweed, or indeed green tea, and perhaps a more palatable alternative for those that do not like the taste of grass or sea.

I’ve heard you can also make nettle tea and that it is good for your health.

I do not know if this is true but can easily imagine ruddy, highland wives sipping away on it.