Foraged Food · Spring Nettle Soup
Nettle Soup
📷 Closely related photo — Photo: Ewan Munro from London, UK / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 2.0
Cooking neutralises the sting completely, turning one of the most feared plants on an Irish country walk into a mild, spinach-like soup.
Young spring nettle tops are foraged, blanched to remove their sting, then simmered with potato, onion and stock and blended smooth. It's long been a countryside staple in the west of Ireland and now turns up on market and festival food stalls each spring.
Why it's made this way: It's rooted in Connacht's tradition of foraging free, wild greens during lean early-spring months when little else was growing.
More from Ireland
Part of World of Street Food — 690 dishes from 118 countries.
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