A cup of nettle tea
![A cup of nettle tea](https://www.woodlands.co.uk/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/nettles.jpg)
The first shoots of young nettles, Urtica dioica, are very good for cooking both soups (see recipe in wild food post) and tea. According to several sources it is also good nutritionally: a source of iron, calcium and folic acid.
Here's a brief guide to making nettle tea:
- Start by picking the nettles, carefully. Use only the small, young ones - they grow more bitter with age. It is possible to pick them with a firm hand but if you are worried about being stung, using scissors and gloves helps.
- Wash the nettles one by one, to get rid of soil and insects.
- Put the nettles in a pot and add enough water to just about cover them. With some experience, you can adjust the amount of water depending on how strong you would like your tea.
- Boil until the water becomes slightly green - test by lowering a spoon into the pot.
- Remove nettles. The tea might go more bitter if they are left in. (On the other hand, the stronger taste might be exactly, well, your cup of tea..)
- Serve with sugar and sliced lemons. The lemons are very important, as you can see below.
The boiled nettles can be used much like spinach, or eaten as-is with some salt.
Nettle tea has a characteristic feature: it changes colour if you add lemon. Its colour depends on the pH and acidity of the water. Children love to add a slice of lemon and watch the tea magically change from a dark green to a bright pink colour. Play the video below to see it happen!
NB. Some people can experience a sensitivity to nettle tea
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Discussion
[…] stinging nettle has had many possible uses ascribed to it, from nettle tea (see the woodland blog) to cloth making; indeed there is some renewed interest in the nettle for […]
[…] the garden, it is a surprisingly tasty and slightly hot tea. Care of course needs to be taken if harvesting your own (for obvious reasons), best done in the spring with the new growth, and this could be dried and put […]
I ate my first batch of nettle soup on the weekend and have some plants left over, so I’m totally going to give nettle tea a go. Thanks for the recipe!
I’m a bit worried about the mentions here of women using nettle tea while pregnant – I just read Natural Herbalism that said nettle can cause uterine contractions so pregnant women should stay away… anyone got any more knowledge?
I am 8 months pregnant and I am craving nettle tea!!! I drink it all the time as it tastes sooo good. I have been mixing dried nettles from my allotment with dried raspberry leaves ( also a uterine tonic) and making tea which is also lovely
Up here in the Lake District we drink nettle tea all the time, many people say it prevents Hay Fever.
I have so many nettles in my garden as i like to keep it sort of wild for the insects and birds etc, i knew that nettle tea was an antioxidant and so tonight i am going to attempt making nettle tea! Can’t wait!
Exellent! – Nettles are a wonderful source of iron and for you ladies out there trying to concieve or currently pregnant, nettles are great for strengthening your uterus as well!
[…] got this idea from this site when I was looking for recipes for nettle tea. Actually you don’t need a recipe for nettle […]
Hi
I knew that nettles is used as a herbal remedy and nutritious addition to the diet, it has long been valued as a medicinal and nutritional treasure, but now it can be used as a tea, that’s great,can you please tell me how to make tea from nettles.For more information regarding tea you all are welcome to my site http://mytealogic.com/
Thanks
My wife (beautiful as she is) has just tried the add-lemon-to-the-nettle-tea thing and the colour did not change. Flavour is good but the pink is alas elusive. Mine’s an ale.
[…] – brew some nettle tea […]
Very good recipie Thanks alot have been wanting to make nettle tea for a while but was clueless! Delicious and so simple to make
Happy new year!
Did you see the articles in Friday 14/9 papers about “caveman diet”? It seems nettles have been eaten for thousands of years. Not surprising I suppose since they are a good source of iron.
I believe that nettles boiled with bacon taste much the same as cabbage boiled with bacon (favourite Irish dish).
Thanks for the kind comment Noreen, and thanks for the link to your blog – I particularly liked the photo of the song thrush’s nest.
Hi,
Your website and blogs are refreshing and intereting – we first checked them out because of a small piece of woodland which has come up for sale near us. I would like to invite any readers to visit our blog at http://www.thehomelyyear.blog.co.uk
Noreen
Hi Halvord
see http://www.gardenguides.com/plants/info/herbs/borage.asp for information. I use both flower and leaf after chopping roughly I fill a cup quarter full and pour on boiling water. I let the liquid steep for a full minute, strain and add honey to taste. It tastes very much like cucumber and is very refreshing with some useful health benefits
regards
Gary
I’m a ‘hobby forager’ and am continually discovering new, wild and free foods around and about!
Here’s a method for cooking young nettles that could be used as a base for soups or even an interesting side vegetable –
Rinse the nettles under running water and strip the leaves from the stems, place the leaves in a pan. Do not add any further water, just what clings to the leaves is sufficient!
Cook the leaves for a few minutes until they have wilted, adding a few drops of water if needed. Mash with your spoon. Add a good sized knob of butter and continue cooking and mashing for another couple of minutes. The resulting puree has an interesting and unique flavour that goes well with prawns or eggs.
Add finely chopped onion, herbs to taste etc if you like.
Bon appetit!
Sheena.
Hi Gary,
borage tea sounds good, I like the plant ( it’s pretty too http://www.hallvord.com/img/borago.jpg ) but I’ve never tried using it for tea. How do you do that, do you dry the leaves or boil it fresh?
I think blending is going to be a matter of taste, I doubt that it would be detrimental in any way or reduce the health benefits of each of them to blend them but I don’t know what it’s going to taste like.
hi there I have recently tried borage and lemon balm tea. I like both these and will now try nettle tea. Can you advise, would it be possible to blend nettle and either borage or lemon balm tea and still keep the health benefits of each herb?
thanks for your time
If you are interested in nettles, then May will see “National Be Nice to Nettles Week”. Details at http://www.nettles.org.uk/ .
For another recipe using nettles, see ‘nettle gnocchi’ at
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/wine/main.jhtml?xml=/wine/2007/04/21/edforaging121.xml
Hi Tracy, I think if you click on “Practical Guides”, you can see all of the How to make things so far…
Thats brilliant! I am going to try it!
Do you have any more: ‘How to make’ guides….???
Tracy
Developed another nice nettle recipe this week – see
http://www.hallvord.com/blog/2009/February/SundayMenu.en.htm
Hallvord R. M. Steen
9 February, 2009