We are happy to dedicate an article to this miracle herb to improve its reputation a little. You usually encounter stinging nettles on the approach to the rock and encounters with them often end up being extremely unpleasant.
Nevertheless, the stinging nettle has a lot to offer!
Prepared as spinach, mixed into scrambled eggs in the morning or as a seasoning herb, the leaves or seeds provide flavonoids, magnesium, potassium and iron.
Here are our 3 favorite nettle recipes (for 4 people):
Power breakfast: scrambled eggs with nettle
2 tablespoons of vegetable oil, 2 handfuls of nettle tips (these are the fine tips - don't forget to wear gloves when picking), 5-6 eggs, 6 tablespoons of milk, salt, pepper to taste, a pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
Wash and finely chop the nettle tips. Then heat the vegetable oil (sunflower oil or rapeseed oil), add the nettle tips and fry until soft. Mix the eggs, milk and spices in a bowl and pour over the nettle tips. Stir to distribute the nettles and eggs. Allow to set briefly and serve with fresh herbs and a tomato salad.
Nettle spinach
Approx. 1 kilo fresh nettle shoots (these are the small tips), 2 onions, salt, 2 tbsp rapeseed oil
First wash the nettle leaves. Sauté the finely chopped onion in rapeseed oil in a tall pan, add the nettle and simmer for approx. 10 mins.
If desired, chop the spinach with a hand blender or use it as spinach leaves and season to taste.
Nettle dumplings
300g dumpling bread, 1/8l milk, 300g nettle, 1 onion, 2 garlic cloves, 40g butter, 4 eggs, salt, pepper, nutmeg, 2 tbsp flour
Wash the nettle, blanch, squeeze well, chop finely and then mix with the dumpling bread. Finely chop the onion and garlic and sauté in butter. Then add to the bread with the eggs. Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg and knead the mixture well. Finally, add the flour and form small dumplings from the mixture.
Cook in salted water for approx. 10 minutes. If you have a steamer, you can put the dumplings in the steamer at 96 degrees for half an hour.
Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and serve with melted brown butter.
You can find these and other recipe tips from Alice Angermann at www.aliceangermann.at.
