Why Stinging Nettles are Worth the Bite!

Nettles (Urtica dioica) – This common, wild perennial shouldn’t need much of a description. It’s the one plant that every child is warned about because of its sting, so most people will know what it looks like!

Age-old uses

It has a long history of use as a source for medicine, food, and fibre. As a fibre it is similar to hemp and can be used to produce fabric. During the First World War when the supply of cotton ran out it was used for cloth to make uniforms. As a medicine it has been used for treating all manner of ailments, from gout to whooping cough.

Is it good for you?

It is absolutely crazy that we don’t incorporate nettles more in our diet. It is a free food that contains masses of healthy nutrients including vitamins A, C. and K, and several B vitamins. Plus calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium and sodium. The main reason for not collecting them, I guess, is the obvious one, the sting!

Cooking with nettles

In the kitchen, it can be used in all sorts of ways: tea, ale, soups, quiches, risottos, pestos and stews, for example. The nutritious seeds can also be used, but more about that later in the year…

If you cut down patches of nettles they will regrow again to give you a fresh supply through to the tail-end of the summer and into the autumn. Always use just the top 4-6 leaves for recipes and wear gloves whilst picking and rinsing them!

Here is a quick springtime recipe of mine. I use it in the autumn too, because it makes such warming, comforting meal accompanied with some chunky sourdough bread.

Nettle, Chorizo and Butter Beans

Ingredients:

200g nettle tops

50g chorizo (cut into slices)

2tbsp local rapeseed oil

1 onion sliced

2 cloves of garlic (bashed with the back of a knife & chopped)

Chicken or vegetable stock

Smoked paprika

Handful of cooked butter beans

Sea salt and crushed black pepper to taste

Method:

Blanch the Nettle leaves for about 45 seconds, thoroughly squeeze out the water, chop finely and set aside.

Heat the rapeseed oil, add the chorizo and fry until the oil is coloured and the chorizo is slightly browned. Remove and put aside.

Add the onion to the oil and cook until translucent, adding the garlic when the onion has softened.

Return the cooked chorizo to the pan and cook a few minutes more, then stir in the nettles, smoked paprika, black pepper and butter beans.

Add chicken stock a little at a time to cook the nettles, until you have the consistency you prefer.

Serve in a bowl with rice or chunky sourdough bread.

Serves: 2 people

Nettles in skincare

Ironically, nettles can be used successfully in skincare too! Despite it getting a bit of a tough reputation for having a nasty sting, nettles have been traditionally used for their benefits in reducing redness and rashes! We use nettles in our ‘Nettle and Oatmeal’ soap, as well as our ‘Soap Scrub for Grubby Gardeners’ – the dried nettle leaves are wonderfully exfoliating (and don’t give you any stingy side-effects!). You can buy our soaps HERE.

Written by Julia Horton-Mansfield
Really Wild Founder and Pembrokeshire Hedge-Botherer!