Darina Allen: How to use nettles in your cooking, including a recipe for nettle beer

Irish Examiner

03-05-2025

Where you see weeds, I see dinner!
Spring is truly in the air, most of the trees are bursting into leaf and the crows are making a terrific racket in the trees behind the house. They have been stealing the sheep's wool I have been using to mulch around the currant and berry bushes to line their nests, so the chicks are super cozy.
There's so much to choose from at this time of the year, but this week's column celebrates the humble nettle. It's a food as well as a medicine, wild, free, and bursting with vitamins. The young tender leaves are deliciously mild and abundant in both the countryside and urban areas.
We've started a batch of nettle beer; this much-loved recipe comes from my Forgotten Skills of Cooking book. It'll be ready to drink in five to six weeks and you can't imagine how delicious it is.
The much maligned nettle is truly a super food. Our ancestors were well aware of their medicinal properties. My grandfather used to insist that it was of the utmost importance to eat four 'feeds' of nettles during the month of May, to clear the blood after winter. We now know that they are indeed rich in vitamins and minerals from calcium, magnesium, to potassium.
They are also loaded with Vitamin A, C, K, and B, and the leaves are high in protein.
There are many references in indigenous folklore. Manuscripts of the early monks referred to nettles and perennial leeks being added to pottages, so we've somehow known from time began how nutritious and beneficial this weed is to human and animal health.
A common saying was 'a pot of nettles in May is health for a year and a day'. They were commonly used in folk medicine to treat various ailments, arthritis, rheumatism, and hay fever, and were believed to promote lactation in nursing mothers.
Have you heard of Nettlemas? This was a tradition in parts of Co Cork, a particularly fun custom where the boys chased each other and sometimes the girls with nettles on 'Nettlemas night', April 30 — the night before May Day. Similar traditions existed in parts of the UK, Scotland, and Europe.
We have several nettle varieties here in Ireland, red dead-nettle (Lamium purpureum), white dead-nettle (Lamium album), and cut-leaved dead-nettle (Lamium galeopsifolia), but the specific variety I'm referring to in this column is the stinging nettle (Urtica dioica). We've all been stung by nettles in the past but since childhood, we've known to seek out the trusty dock leaf that will always be growing close by as an antidote to the burning sting.
It goes without saying that it's necessary to wear rubber gloves when picking. Nettles cannot be eaten raw, but they lose their sting when cooked, dried, or blended. If you just brush lightly against a nettle, they sting, but if you grasp them firmly, they won't sting.
They're also a brilliant addition to poultry food and the compost heap. They decompose quickly, provide a rich source of nitrogen, and are increasingly used for cordage, dying and weaving a natural fabric, similar to linen. Who knew that the often despised nettle could have so many attributes, one of nature's most versatile and beneficial plants.
So, once again, a few suggestions for ways to enjoy them in the kitchen — potato and nettle soup, nettle tea, nettle pesto, nettle champ or colcannon, nettle smoothies, nettle and ricotta pizza…
Sneak a few into greens, check out my recipes in earlier columns and here are a few more.
Spanakopita with Nettles & Spinach
recipe by:Darina Allen
Spanakopita can also be made in individual 'snails', but this delicious flaky version comes in a sauté pan. This version is good for a feast as it serves 12-15 people. You can halve the recipe if you're serving smaller numbers.
Servings
15
Preparation Time 
15 mins
Cooking Time 
60 mins
Total Time 
1 hours 15 mins
Course 
Main
Ingredients 150g butter
900g leeks, sliced and washed really well
6 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
500g onions, finely chopped
8 spring onions (both white and green parts), finely sliced
450g nettles, washed and blanched
450g fresh spinach, weighed after the stalks have been removed, washed really well
6 tbsp chopped flat-leaf parsley
6 tbsp chopped dill
350g feta cheese, crumbled
125g Parmesan cheese, grated
4 organic, free-range eggs, beaten
9 sheets of filo pastry, 30 x 43cm (about one packet)
15g melted butter, for brushing
Egg wash, made by beating 1 organic, free-range egg with 2-3 tablespoons whole milk
Flaky sea salt, freshly ground black pepper and nutmeg
Method
Preheat the oven to 180°C/Gas Mark 4.
Melt the butter in a 26cm ovenproof sauté pan and cook the sliced leeks with two to three tablespoons of water for four to five minutes until tender (older leeks may take slightly longer).
Scoop the leeks out of the pan and set aside on a plate while you cook the spinach and blanch the nettles in boiling salted water for 3-4 minutes.
Heat the olive oil in the sauté pan, add the onions and spring onions, and sweat over a low heat for three to four minutes, covered, until soft but not coloured.
Increase the heat to medium, add the blanched nettles and the spinach and toss well to coat it in the oil. Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg.
Add the chopped parsley and dill, and continue to cook for 4-5 minutes, stirring, until the greens have wilted. Turn out the spinach mixture into a colander and set aside to drain and cool.
Combine the crumbled feta and 100g of the grated Parmesan in a medium bowl and beat in the egg. Add the nettles, well-drained spinach, the leeks and season to taste.
Brushing each sheet of filo with melted butter as you go, layer up the pastry in the base of the sauté pan or roasting dish so that it comes up the sides, leaving enough pastry hanging over the sides to fold over and encase the filling.
Spread the filling evenly over the pastry and bring up the sides of the filo to enclose the filling. Score the top of the pie into a diamond or square pattern and brush all over with the egg wash. Sprinkle the surface with the remaining 25g grated Parmesan.
Put the sauté pan onto a gas jet at medium, cook for three to four minutes or until the pan heats and the base starts to brown.
Transfer to the oven and bake for about 45 minutes until puffed up and golden.
Serve, cut into wedges, while still warm and fluffy.
Indian Spiced Stinging Nettle Soup
recipe by:Darina Allen
This is an Indian spiced lentil soup (dal) that tastes brilliantly with the addition of nettles which can of course be swapped out with any seasonal leafy green vegetable eg, spinach or chard.
Servings
4
Preparation Time 
5 mins
Cooking Time 
20 mins
Total Time 
25 mins
Course 
Starter
Ingredients 50ml extra virgin olive oil
200g onion, diced
3 large cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed
2 tsp freshly roasted and ground cumin
2 tsp garam masala
1 tsp turmeric
½ tsp black mustard seed
185g red lentils
1 litre homemade chicken stock
150g washed nettle leaves, roughly chopped
1 tsp salt and a pinch of sugar to taste
To serve
natural yogurt
fresh coriander leaves
Method
Heat the extra virgin olive oil in a saucepan, add the chopped onion and sweat until lightly browned. Add the garlic and all of the spices and fry for 1-2 minutes until fragrant and aromatic. Next, add the lentils, chicken stock and washed nettles. Simmer until the lentils are cooked, 10-15 minutes approx.
Add salt and a pinch of sugar to taste.
Delicious served with naan bread and a dollop of natural yoghurt and a sprinkle of coriander leaves.
Roger's Nettle Beer
recipe by:Darina Allen
A gem from Roger Phillips' book, Wild Food. It made delicious beer – sweet, fizzy, perfect for summertime.
Servings
12
Cooking Time 
10 mins
Total Time 
10 mins
Course 
Side
Ingredients 100 nettle stalks, with leaves
11 litres water
1.3kg granulated sugar
50g cream of tartar
10g live yeast
Method
Boil the nettles in the water for 10 minutes. Strain and add the sugar and the cream of tartar. Heat and stir until dissolved.
Remove from the heat and leave until tepid, then add the yeast and stir well. Cover with muslin and leave for several days.
Remove the scum and decant without disturbing the sediment. Bottle, cork and tie down.
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