Nettle and wild garlic soup – brandnetel-daslooksoep (GF – SF)

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I’m always surfing for gluten free and other interesting food bloggers, most of the times I forget where I found them, but yesterday I read a recipe which used wild garlic and it inspired me to make this wonderful, beautiful green soup with nettles and wild garlic (or daslook we call it in Dutch).

Wild garlic or allium ursinum is one of the first edible wild greens, next to nettles and dandelion. They have a mild garlicky taste but you have to pick the leaves before the white flowers appear. You can use them in soups, stews but also in a pesto.

Spring greens are very healthy, they are cleansing and detoxing, so try to eat them at least 2 times a week now and do as I do: pick some young dandelion, wild garlic or goose grass and eat them while your walking or, to be sure no dogs used them before you, wash them first at home.

In Holland wild garlic is a legally protected plant, and very rare to find.
When I was a kid I always saw and smelled them in the Savelsbos in Zuid-Limburg, where I was camping with my parents. They grow in shady deciduous forests and a few years ago I found them here in the middle of Rotterdam! So now I, only once a year, allow myself to pick a few (20) leaves. When you don’t have wild garlic – daslook, you can use chives with a bit of garlic.


Nettle and wild garlic soup (lunch 2 pers)

1 small red onion, finely diced
1 floury potato, 130 g, peeled, in 4
1 tsp fresh thyme leaves
50 ml cream
500 ml vegetable broth
1 handful of wild garlic leaves, washed
50 g nettle tops, washed

Put the onion and the potato together with the thyme, cream and broth in a stockpot and bring it to the boil. Let it simmer for 20 minutes.
In the meanwhile you wash and cut the wild garlic leaves coarsely; put them in the last 10 minutes.
You also wash the nettles thoroughly and blanch them in cooking water for 2 minutes. Drain them and cool immediately in ice cold water. Drain them again and puree them in a blender. Set aside.

When the potatoes are done, you puree the soup and then add the nettle puree. Mix well and heat up a little. Taste and add freshly ground pepper and some salt, if necessary.

The colour is beautifully green and it’s a real delicate soup, great when your adolescent comes home from school or when you get that afternoon dip. So no chocolate, but soup!!

Brandnetel en daslook soep (lunch 2 pers)

1 kleine rode ui, fijngehakt
1 kruimige aardappel, geschild en in 4
1 el verse tijmblaadjes
50 ml slagroom
500 ml groentebouillon
1 handvol daslook blaadjes
50 g brandneteltopjes

Doe de ui en aardappel samen met de tijmblaadjes, slagroom en bouillon in een kleine soeppan en breng aan de kook. Laat het 20 minuten zachtjes koken.
Ondertussen was je de daslook en snijd de blaadjes grof. Je voegt ze de laatste 10 minuten toe aan de soep.
Je wast de brandnetels goed en blancheert ze 2 minuten in kokend water. Giet af en koel ze meteen in ijskoud water. Laat uitlekken en pureer ze. Zet even apart.

Als de aardappelen gaar zijn, pureer je de soep en voeg dan de brandnetelpuree toe. Roer goed door elkaar. Verwarm eventueel nog zachtjes, proef en voeg naar smaak versgemalen peper en zout toe.

De kleur is prachtig lentegroen en het is een delicate soep, heerlijk als je puber uit school komt of voor die namiddagdip.
Dus geen chocola maar soep!!