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The stinging nettle is a plant used as a cooking green for its nutty, earthy, spinachlike flavor; its bright emerald-green color; and its texture—it is firmer than spinach and doesn’t get as squishy or slimy when cooked. You can make nettles into pesto, sauté them to top crostini, put them on pizza, incorporate them into pasta dough to make it a vibrant green, and do just about anything else with them that you would do with a mild green such as chard or spinach.
But the term stinging nettle is literal. Nettles are covered in tiny, hollow, needlelike hairs filled with a toxicant that irritates people’s skin, producing red, stinging, burning welts that can last for hours. Cooking, drying, or freezing nettles renders them safe to eat though, says Richard R. Halse, a senior instructor in Oregon State University’s Department of Botany and Plant Pathology.
While there are 45 species of nettle worldwide, says Halse, the primary nettle for culinary use is Urtica dioica, which is found throughout most of North America and Eurasia. It’s common to see it growing as a weed in cultivated fields of other crops.
Andy Griffin, the owner-operator of Mariquita Farm in Watsonville, California, says, “When we pick them on the farm, everybody wears rubber surgical gloves, to keep from getting stung.” If you are handling nettles raw at home, wearing rubber dish gloves should do the trick, although the plants might be less liable to cause any harm because they’ve already been handled and the needles may have been crushed.
Just remember, says Griffin, “this is not a raw food. Nettles are always to be cooked.” And don’t worry if you see clusters of light green and yellow things on the nettles that look like aphids. Most likely they are not. “I can’t tell you how many times people have screamed, ‘There are bugs in them!’” says Griffin. “If you look close you’d see that they are tiny little flowers.”
No thanks, I am very allergic to the stings. Huge hives.
Actually, it is edible raw and you can pick it without being stung if you're careful - pick younger leaves/plants and pull from the top down. Place directly on your tongue, as the saliva in your mouth is a natural barrier and will neutralise the poison. Possibly.
Not far from where I live, there's a yearly nettle-eating contest in Marshwood, Dorset, UK.
They can be consumed in many more ways...+READ
Actually, it is edible raw and you can pick it without being stung if you're careful - pick younger leaves/plants and pull from the top down. Place directly on your tongue, as the saliva in your mouth is a natural barrier and will neutralise the poison. Possibly.
Not far from where I live, there's a yearly nettle-eating contest in Marshwood, Dorset, UK.
They can be consumed in many more ways than a potato and are the most nutritious leafy plant out there, with a ridiculously long list of benefits toward health and beauty, and many homeopathic uses.-COLLAPSE
Thank you for a great article; now to find the nettles in my area at Lubbock, TX
Burdock leaves are the natural remedy for nettle stings - look for large broad leaves, crush them in both hands and then rub the crushed burdock leaves on the affected area - relief is instant usually.
Just this morning I had my first "hands on" experience with this plant. I reached down to pull what looked like a weed growing and got stung. Cool water from the hose was the remedy for me. Now, not only do I know what kind of plant it is, buy that it's edible!
In our part of Texas we have Bull Nettles and wow do they sting. They are very hard to kill off so finding out they are edible is very interesting, now the problem is trying to find someone to try them. My husbands 95 year old grandmother said she would always eat the nut. After the bull nettle flowers a nut forms in the middle, and according to granny you just have to carefully remove the nut,...+READ
In our part of Texas we have Bull Nettles and wow do they sting. They are very hard to kill off so finding out they are edible is very interesting, now the problem is trying to find someone to try them. My husbands 95 year old grandmother said she would always eat the nut. After the bull nettle flowers a nut forms in the middle, and according to granny you just have to carefully remove the nut, peal off the casing/shell then roast them. Every year I say I am going to try it, but so far I have not done so, this may be granny's last summer with us so I think I will try it for her.
As a thought, would the nut make a good pesto? I would think so. I make jelly from cactus so why can't I make pesto or roasted nuts from bull nettle. Will let you know how it goes.
kelreg-COLLAPSE
In all honesty, I've never considered nettles to be a viable source for food, but reading this has intrigued me, and I would love to try turning these annoying little (insert expletive here) into a pesto for a pasta. What better way to get redemption than to enjoy them through the joys of eating? Cheers!
Zak