Nourishing Nettle

I took a fabulous class last year called Therapeutic Whole Foods Cooking. One spring class we went into the woods around Bastyr and did some wild foraging. This was something I'd always been curious about, but in my usual 'all or nothing' way, I managed to turn wild foraging into something only really experienced and learned folks who want to live in sod houses and make their own soap would do. Walking the 50 feet from the campus into a patch of nettle, cleavers and miner's lettuce ready for eating, quickly showed me that I was wrong. There is SO MUCH FOOD growing in the Pacific Northwest. We gathered up enough for lunch and made nettle soufflé. It was seriously delicious.

Yes that's nettle as in Stinging Nettle. The evil stuff I was terrified of as a kid playing at the end of my street. We have a new relationship now.

I am, I admit, addicted to nettle. There is more nutritional value in that stingy thing than even kale - the so-called powerhouse of the green kingdom. Nettle has a ridiculous amount of calcium (10x that of kale) and many other minerals (such as iron and magnesium) as well as anti-inflammatory and immune system modulating (balancing) compounds. I have a bag of dried nettle the size of a small child stashed in an unused corner of my kitchen that I make a daily infusion from (1 oz dried nettle steeped overnight in 1 liter boiling water – strain and drink). I think of it as my multi-vitamin and overall tonic. Nettle contains quercetin, which some believe makes it useful for treating seasonal allergies. It is especially supportive to the adrenal glands, which pump out the hormones we need to deal with stress. They tend to be a little overused in our culture. Everyone can use a little support, no? The stinging part of the nettle is deactivated by drying and cooking and then it just becomes another delicious green vegetable.

Last year, the transition to Seattle and full time school (and full time caffeine overload) was a little trying on my stomach and my nerves. After sipping nettle infusion in a Therapeutic Whole Foods tea tasting I became enamored. The inky emerald brew was faintly milky and sweet. It's not surprising to me that it's so high in calcium. I find nettle calming but energizing at the same time. Ok, get the sod ready... I could go on forever about nettles!

Here's a link to a recent nettle foraging trip by Seattle chef and localvore Becky Selengut (whose cooking classes I assist in the hopes of absorbing some of her effortless, inspiring teaching style). She harvests nettles for purely gastronomic purposes paired with a healthy respect for this mineral laden local gem.

Best news yet... it's nettle season, which means - they're FREE! I think I’ll take my gloves to school, go for a walk in the trails and grab myself some nourishment.


Nettle Soufflé
Serves 2-4
Preparation time: 1 hour

1 ½ cups water
4 cups young nettle tops
2 tablespoons olive oil or butter
1 onion or leek, minced
2 tablespoons flour (Gluten free try 1 tablespoon rice flour, 2 tablespoons arrowroot powder)
1/2 cup milk, soy milk or nettle broth
1-2 egg yolks, beaten
2 egg whites, stiffly beaten

Cook nettle in boiling water for 5-10 minutes. Drain well; save broth. Puree nettle in blender or food processor; set aside. Sauté onion in oil until golden. Add flour and cook, stirring for 2 minutes. Slowly add ½ cup of nettle broth or milk and cook, stirring often until dry and thick. Add a little of this at a time to the beaten egg yolk, until they are well mixed. Now stir in nettle puree and salt to taste. Last, carefully fold in egg whites. Put in a soufflé dish, bake at 350 degrees until firm, 30-40 minutes.

Adapted by Jennifer Adler from Healing Wise by Susan Weed.


Nettle Pesto
1/2 pound nettles
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup toasted pecans
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
1/2 to 1 cup extra virgin olive oil
about 1/4 cup parmesan cheese
(or for the dairy free -some chopped sundried Moroccan olives - that can have an almost cheesy taste...)

1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the nettles (keep them in the bag and don't handle them too much) and cook for 2 minutes.
Drain in a colander, allow to cool and press out the excess water. This yields about a cup of cooked nettles.

2. Grind the garlic, pecans, salt, and black pepper in a food processor until finely chopped. Add the nettles, breaking them up. Add the lemon juice and whirl until the nettles are finely chopped. With the machine running, drizzle in the olive oil in a slow, steady stream. Add the cheese or olives, pulse a few times, and add salt, pepper or lemon to taste.

Inspired by Anna Macnak, adapted from Vegetarian Cooking by Paul Gayler.

Enjoy!

Spring.... with Peanut Sauce.

It's definitely Spring. I know that most of all because I have fantastic, fizzy energy (despite the brain drain of school) and a potent desire to be outside and moving as much as possible.

I also feel a big shift because I'm no longer craving hearty stews, beans and root vegetables! For the first time in ages I actually craved a SALAD.

I really appreciate this. It is pretty amazing to me that my body can pick up on how everything around me is changing and shift my cravings to whatever I need most at this time. Think about that. Pretty neat.

I came home from my shift at the farmer's market this week and I was surprised that I wasn't craving my usual post-standing-outside-all-day meal... spaghetti and meat sauce piled high with vegetables. I have had some pretty much transcendental moments over the last few chilly, wet Seattle months - parked on the couch post market hugging a steaming bowl of noodles to my chest, all snuggled in a puddle of oregano and marjoram and free-range beef spiked tomato sauce... sigh. It was made even better by the fact that my roomies and I took turns making it each week. The lure of that bowl got me through many of those final damp, winter market hours.

This time though all I wanted was... a salad. I actually stood there a moment in slight disbelief. Really? A salad? I searched for the familiar meat craving, but there was none. Just an incredibly strong urge to eat the kale and cabbage rabe I'd picked up from Nash's (sounds like "raab". It's the tender, sweet flowering heads that pop up in the spring). Strange, but I figured it was best to listen.

It got me thinking about eating seasonal and local foods. If you are eating locally then you pretty much end up eating what’s in season. I love being reconnected to that cycle. Who doesn’t get excited at the first summer strawberries - or fresh, sun-warmed, drip down your arm Okanagan peaches. That’s when you KNOW its summer. Well it's Spring now and that means asparagus season! (see What's in Season and Seasonal Cornucopia).

And then that got me thinking some more- those plants are living in the same conditions we are and going through the same daylight and temperature changes. Eating them gives us a pretty good chance we'll get the nutrients we need to adapt to those conditions too. It's hard to believe sometimes when we are boxed up in our cars and closed off in our houses with our hand sanitizer at the ready but we are part of this ecosystem too.

So my craving for spring greens, which in many traditional medicines are considered detoxifying and rejuvenating, is perfect for shedding a bit of that winter insulation we don’t really need now that it's warmer.

Spring does a pretty good job of reminding us that we aren't static, our diets change (and need to) and our cravings might just be the best information we can get about ‘what to eat’. I'd highly recommend listening... you might be surprised.


Here's my post market salad...

Purple kale rabe – roughly chopped
Cabbage rabe –roughly chopped
Asparagus, roasted, chopped - from the other night (see here for recipe)
Young swiss chard leaves torn into bite sized pieces
Some fennel bulb – sliced
A raw sunchoke (Jerusalem artichoke), sliced
Some leftover cooked, brown rice
Some Red cabbage, thinly shredded
Some raw beets, grated fine (try it! So juicy and sweet)
Toasted pumpkin seeds
1 free range, hard boiled egg, sliced (or some grilled salmon)


Pile all the greens into a bowl on top of the rice. Scatter with the remaining ingredients and drizzle dressing (recipe below) on top. Sit in the warm spring sun and check out all the incredible colour in that bowl. Take a deep breath, take a bite and enjoy.


Rebar’s Intensely Fresh Peanut Sauce/Dressing

makes 3/4 cup

1/4 cup smooth peanut butter (try cashew butter, almond butter or a mix)
1 clove garlic
About a 2 inch piece of ginger, minced or grated, (try using the back of a spoon to scrape off the skin – SO easy)
1 or 2 tbsp. honey (to taste)
a handful of cilantro leaves
juice of 1 lime
1 tbsp. sesame oil
1 tsp. sambal olek (or any hot sauce or dried chilies)
1/4 cup soy sauce (try naturally fermented tamari)
2 tbsp. brown rice vinegar

Whiz it all together in blender, with a hand blender or by hand with a little elbow grease (chopping fine and gently heating the nut butter will help).


Adapted from the Rebar Modern Foods Cookbook