Recipes made using nettles

Some common recipes made using nettles and the preparation is really fully home – based.

Nettles Spanokopita:

The manufacturing of this recipe involves the use of filo leaves. Filo leaves are very slim sheets of pastry dough and are usually sold in frozen form. The results of using Filo are really awesome although working with it may be little messy. So for making this recipe first of all you will need a basket of fresh young nettles or nearly cooked nettles of around 4 cups as these are the major ingredients as the name suggests. Then you will need a 16-oz can of sliced black olives, feta cheese of nearly 1 lb, some mined cloves of garlic and some olive oil. Apart from these, as already mentioned you will need fillo leaves.
Now let us see the procedure needed to make the recipe:
• Cook the nettles by adding little amount of water. Cook till the nettles becomes very tender and then drain off the water and keep it for cooling purpose
• Now mix these tender nettles with olives, olive oil, feta cheese and of course minced garlic and your filling is now ready.
• Now cut the filo leaves just half going lengthwise. Folding of pastries should be done properly and just use three filo sheets per pastry of just quarter cup filling.
• Take a nice ungreased cookie sheet and bake for nearly half an hour at nearly 350 degrees.
This method is capable of making 24 such pastries.

Nettles – Mint tea:

For preparing this nettles mint tea all you need to do is to add a tablespoon of fresh dried nettles to mint to a cup of boiling water. You can also use half a cup of nettles-mint mixture to a quarter of boiling water. After making it, leave for nearly 24 hrs for maximu potency of the tea. Use of sugar is entirely dependent on your taste.

Nettles Cocktail:

The basic ingredients needed to prepare this cocktail are:
• A cup of juice of fresh tomatoes
• Nettles broth or tonic infusion of just half a cup
• Herbal vinegar or lemon juice of just a tablespoon
• A pinch of salt and pepper which is again dependent on your choice
• Worcestershire sauce just a teaspoon
• Some dash tobacco sauce

Being a cocktail it actually doesn’t have any fixed procedure. Just mix all the ingredients together and your cocktail is ready in no time. This is really quick and easy to prepare, you can serve it hot or chilled.

Nettles – Ricotta Pie:

Ingredients needed for making the crust are:
• Unbleached flour of 1 cup
• 2 to 3 tablespoon of chilled water
• One third cup of butter
• Half teaspoon salt or as needed

Ingredients for preparing the filling are:
• One teaspoon of butter
• 3 nice fresh eggs
• A cup full of minced wild leeks. You can also use onions in this place.
• Take cooked and dried nettles in 3 cups.
• 3 tablespoon of flour
• One to half cups of grated sharp cheese
• Salt and pepper as needed

Now let us see the method to prepare this nice recipe. First of all in a 9-10 inch pie pan prepare the pie crust using the ingredients mentioned. Preheat your oven to near about 375 degrees Celsius. Now cook or fry the leeks or onions whichever used in butter and add the nettles, salt and pepper with it and place the mixture in a bowl. Then take a fresh bowl and mix the eggs, ricotta, and flour with half the grated cheese. Now add it to the nettles and blend properly. Once this is ready, spread it on the unbaked previously prepared pie shell. Use the remaining cheese for toppings ad then bake the product for 40 to 45 minutes in your preheated oven.

Nettle – Yogurt Tonic:

This is actually a soup but since the soup is very green and feels like a medicine it has the suffix “tonic” attached to it. This recipe is very easy to prepare and highly rich in nutrient content. The basic ingredients needed are:
• Either take a cup of cooked nettles or use fresh nettle of 4 cups.
• A cup of yogurt.
• Some 3-4 cloves of garlic
• Salt as needed
• Water of approximately 2 cups.

The notable about this recipe is that this soup can be consumed both hot and chilled. This is perhaps the best and the healthiest recipe prepared using nettles and if you really appreciate the values of nettles, you are definitely going to love this recipe. Let us see the process of making it.
• Put the fresh nettles in water, cover the pan and simmer it for around 10-15 minutes till it becomes really tender
• Now take your blender and put these nettles with yogurt, garlic and salt.
• Blend it this it becomes a nice liquid.

Your soup is ready for consumption.