SPRING SOUP

ASPARAGUS+FENNEL+NETTLE

If you have seen my Instagram feed, you know that I've chosen to be a cook for a whole weekend. My husband had a birthday on Friday so one part of his present is to let him just enjoy of eating - not making it. He likes to cook a lot but you know who wouldn't like to just sit at the readymade table?

I found great inspiration from Green Kitchen Stories blog. You can find the original recipe there.  Actually I saw their delicious pic in IG. Surprise! It really looked very tempting. 

So I made it. But I made some changes to the recipe. I changed spinach to nettle, because you can find it almost right next to our door this time of the year (yay!...and it's free ;) and it is also very healthy. Second change was replacing lemon with buckthorn juice. I can't eat citrus fruits so I used very scandinavian choise that is quite similar or at least a bit close ;) and garnishing with goutweed. That you can also find from garden (too) easily.

What can I say. It tasted heavenly. Very good and the toppings! I haven't thought it well before that you really can do amazing things with toppings. You don't have to eat so much bread (expecially if it have to be gluten free) you can eat some really nice things with your soup like here: lentils, asparagus, parsley, green chili, pumkin seeds and cashew cream. So this recipe is also totally vegan too.

One big nod to David and Luise for this beautiful and tasteful recipe. I had to write it down to my vintage (straight from the seventies - it has only plastic artifical food things in it's cover) recipe book and that is a book where we only write the best ones.

Have a tasty Sunday!

xo

Kreetta

ps. I took this photo with my husband's camera because I was too lazy to take my camera home and yesterday when I made the soup I just had to photograph it. He has smaller and older Canon and the lens was Voightländer 90mm and with cropped sensor it's really tele...and only manual focusing...it's always a bit uncomfortable when you don't have your own gear and well, you have to work a bit more with making one pic, I say.

Nokkonen on ykkönen - Nettle makes my day

nettle in the sun

My wild edibles story continues with super super nettle. I've guess your first impression isn't very kind towards this little green evil in the middle of grass...but good thing is you can eat it...and it is very healthy - lot of minerals like calcium, iron, magnesium etc. and vitamins like A, C E etc. And only few things to remember. Don't use nettle which has grown next to compost or on area which is rich in nitrogen. I'm sure you can find lots of recipes and how to do from internet so do find your way to enjoy of it. 

on the way 

Here's mine nettle pesto ingredients: 

(I don't use measures because it's easy to taste and see when it's ready)

Raw nettle, garlic, salt, black pepper, olive oil, macadamia nuts or pine nuts or sunflower seeds depends on what you have or what you like.  I choose to add also some fresh basilica that it gets more flavor. And then just make it with blender and maybe some water to bend it. Voila. 

Super super supper.

Villiyrttiesittelyni jatkuu nokkosella ja se jos jokin on superrrrruokaa. Se sisältää runsaasti vitamiineja ja hivenaineita. Poimi herkku talteen ja valmista se miten parhaaksi näet vaihtoehtoja on monia ja verkko niitä pullollaan. Itse valitsen peston, jonka valmistan raa'asta nokkosesta tehosekoittimen avulla. Piikit siinä samalla murentuvat joten ei tarvitse pelätä polttavansa suuta. Mutta hyvin se kannattaa kuitenkin tehdä.

Nokkospestoa syntyy seuraavista raaka-aineista: nokkonen, valkosipuli, suola, pippuri, oliiviöljy, macadamiapähkinä tai pinjansiemen tai auringonkukansiemen tai kaikkia em. ja sitten vielä hieman tuoretta basilikaa makua terästämään. Voit myös lisätä hieman vettä notkistamaan peston rakennetta. Mutta siinä se on - supersuperhyväruoka.

to the plate

Pieni varoituksen sana hortoilijalle: älä kerää nokkosia kompostien läheltä tai lantakasojen ym. paikkojen nitraattipitoiselta maalta. 

Nettle links:

what it looks like

what it is

interesting information about it