Thought for Food: Roadside goodness

Nutritious, delicious and free! Darina Allen on stinging nettles

It's foraging time again. The lanes and woods around where I live in Shanagarry are full of wild garlic. Alexanders (Smyrnium olusatrum), with their umbelliferous yellow flowers, grow all along the roadside close to the coast. The peeled stalks make an exciting vegetable served as you would asparagus with melted butter or Hollandaise.

This weekend we gathered baskets of young stinging nettles. They are young and tender right now – just a few centimetres high. Later in the year they become coarse and tough due to a chemical change. There has always been a tradition in Ireland to eat "a feed of nettles" three or four times in the month of May to clear the blood and keep away the rheumatics for the following year. Nettles are a powerhouse of goodness – they contain iron, formic acid, ammonia, silicic acid and histamine. These chemicals are known to relieve rheumatism, sciatica and other related ailments. They also increase the efficiency of haemoglobin in the blood, improve the circulation, purify and have an overall toning effect on the body. They are also thought to lower blood pressure and blood sugar level.

So what to do with the nettles? Well understandably, they are not a good idea in salads, but are particularly good treated like spinach and served as a vegetable or mixed with tomato fondue as a pasta sauce.

Irish Nettle Soup

Serves 4-6

45g (11/2 oz) butter

285g (10oz) potatoes

110g (4oz) onions, chopped

110g (4oz) leeks, chopped

Salt and freshly ground pepper

1L (13/4 pints) chicken stock

140g (5oz) young nettles

150ml (1/4 pint) cream

Melt the butter in a heavy saucepan. When it foams, add the potatoes, onions and leeks, and toss them in the butter until well coated. Sprinkle with salt and freshly ground pepper. Cover with a paper lid (to keep in the steam) and the saucepan lid, and sweat on a gentle heat for 10 minutes or until the vegetables are soft but not coloured. Discard the paper lid and add the stock; boil until the vegetables are just cooked, add the washed and chopped nettle leaves. Simmer uncovered for just a few minutes. Do not overcook or the vegetables will lose their flavour. Add the cream or creamy milk and liquidise. Taste and correct seasoning. Serve hot.