Chef Thomas
A Proper Chicken Broth
Sunday's roast chicken, simmered slowly on Monday with carrots, celery, leeks, and thyme into a bowl of clear, golden broth that smells like the kitchen is paying attention.
Culinary Explorer
A cooking platform built around craft, culture, and the stories behind what we eat.
Nettle Soup
Created by Chef Thomas
A bowlful of early spring gathered from the hedgerow, cooked with potato and stock into something vivid and green, the sort of soup that costs nothing and tastes like the season turning.
Soups & Stews
British
Weeknight
Budget Friendly
20 min
Active Time
30 min cook•50 min total
Yield4 servings
The nettles came up along the back wall last week, as they always do. Bright, insistent, stinging everything they touched. I put on the rubber gloves, took a carrier bag, and picked the tops off the youngest plants. Ten minutes and the bag was full. The cost of this soup is nothing. The taste of it is spring.
There's something faintly absurd about nettle soup until you've made it. A weed, boiled. But then you taste it and the green is extraordinary: deep and mineral, somewhere between spinach and asparagus, with an earthiness that only wild things carry. A couple of potatoes for body, some butter, good stock, and you have a bowl of soup that feels ancient and alive at the same time.
I make this every April. The notebook entry from the first time says: "Nettles from the lane. Bright green. Better than expected. Much better." That still holds. A recipe is a conversation, not a contract, and this one is barely a recipe at all. Pick the nettles. Cook the soup. Put a warm bowl in front of someone. There are few better feelings than that.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
young nettle tops
Quantity
200g
picked with gloves, washed
onion
Quantity
1 medium
sliced
potatoes
Quantity
2 medium
peeled and roughly chopped
unsalted butter
Quantity
30g
garlic
Quantity
1 clove
sliced
chicken or vegetable stock
Quantity
750ml
double cream
Quantity
100ml
fine sea salt
Quantity
to taste
black pepper
Quantity
to taste
lemon juice
Quantity
a squeeze
sorrel or wild garlic leaves (optional)
Quantity
a few
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| young nettle topspicked with gloves, washed | 200g |
| onionsliced | 1 medium |
| potatoespeeled and roughly chopped | 2 medium |
| unsalted butter | 30g |
| garlicsliced | 1 clove |
| chicken or vegetable stock | 750ml |
| double cream | 100ml |
| fine sea salt | to taste |
| black pepper | to taste |
| lemon juice | a squeeze |
| sorrel or wild garlic leaves (optional) | a few |
Equipment Needed
- •Heavy-bottomed saucepan
- •Stick blender or countertop blender
- •Rubber gloves for picking nettles
- •Ladle
Instructions
- 1
Wash the nettles
Fill the sink with cold water and plunge the nettles in, still wearing your gloves. Swirl them about, lift them out, and drain. They look like a lot. They aren't. Nettles cook down to almost nothing, like spinach but more so. Once they hit the hot pan the sting goes entirely, so don't worry. Just don't touch them raw.
Pick only the top four or six leaves of each plant, the young, bright green growth. Once they've flowered, they're past it. Early to mid spring is the window. Rubber gloves and a carrier bag are all you need. - 2
Soften the onion
Melt the butter in a heavy-bottomed pan over a gentle heat. Add the sliced onion and a good pinch of salt. Let it soften for eight or ten minutes, stirring now and then, until it's translucent and sweet and the kitchen starts to smell warm. Add the garlic for the last minute. It should barely colour.
- 3
Add potatoes and stock
Tip in the chopped potatoes and pour over the stock. Bring to a steady simmer and cook with the lid slightly ajar for fifteen minutes or so, until the potato breaks apart when you press it with the back of a spoon. The potato is doing the work of thickening here. No flour, no roux. Just starch and time.
- 4
Cook the nettles
Push the nettles into the pot in handfuls. They'll wilt down in seconds, turning from a wild tangle to a dark, soft mass. If you've found sorrel or wild garlic, add it now too. Let everything simmer together for three or four minutes, no more. Overcooking loses that vivid green and the fresh, mineral taste that makes this worth bothering with.
The colour is everything. A brief cook keeps the soup a striking, deep green. If you let it go too long it turns khaki and sullen. Watch the clock here even if you don't anywhere else. - 5
Blend and finish
Take the pan off the heat and blend until completely smooth. A stick blender in the pot is simplest. Stir in the cream and return to a low heat to warm through, but don't let it boil. Add a squeeze of lemon, it lifts the whole thing and sharpens the green flavour. Season and taste. Then taste again. Ladle into warm bowls and serve with bread. Good bread, the kind with a crust that resists you.
Chef Tips
- •The stock matters here because the soup is so simple. Homemade chicken stock gives depth that a cube can't. If you don't have it, a decent bought fresh stock will do. What you want is something with body, not just flavoured water.
- •A squeeze of lemon at the end is not optional. Without it the soup tastes worthy but flat. With it, the green flavour sharpens and sings. Not enough to taste citrus, just enough to wake everything up.
- •If you find wild garlic growing near the nettles, and you often will, pick a handful of leaves and add them to the pot. They bring a gentle warmth that sits well alongside the mineral nettles. Your nose will tell you when you've got it right.
- •This soup is best the day it's made, while the colour is still vivid. By the next day it's perfectly good to eat but the green fades to something less beautiful. Make it and eat it. That's the rhythm.
Advance Preparation
- •The nettles can be picked and washed a day ahead. Store them in a bag in the fridge, still slightly damp, and they'll hold fine.
- •The base of onion, potato, and stock can be prepared ahead, but add the nettles and blend only when you're ready to eat. The colour and freshness are the whole point.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 330g)
Calories
275 calories
Total Fat
19 g
Saturated Fat
11 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
7 g
Cholesterol
50 mg
Sodium
690 mg
Total Carbohydrates
22 g
Dietary Fiber
4 g
Sugars
3 g
Protein
5 g
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