Bowl of Swedish Nettle Soup
(click to enlarge)

Nettle Soup


Sweden   -   Nässelsoppa
Serves:
Effort:
Sched:
DoAhead:  		 4 soup
**
35 min
Note-3		 A light soup with delightful herbal flavor popular in Sweden, often served with a hard boiled or poached egg. It is a simple soup, so the quality of the beef stock is important, but it shouldn't be too strong.

5
4
1
2
tt
1/4
2
2
oz
c
T
T

t
T
T
Nettles (1)  
Beef Stock
Chives
Chervil (2)
Salt
Pepper
Flour
Butter

The slight thickening with flour is necessary or the nettles all sink to the bottom.

Prep   -   (15 min)
  1. Float wash NETTLES like you would spinach. Wear rubber gloves if your skin is tender. Discard tough stems (those turning dark), drain well and chop coarse.
  2. Chop CHIVES and CHERVIL small. Mix.
Run   -   (20 min)
  1. Put Nettles and Stock in a large saucepan. Bring to a boil and simmer until nettles are tender, about 7 minutes.
  2. Strain soup into a bowl. Mix Chive mix with Nettles and process very fine. I use a mini-prep food processor.
  3. Return Nettles and Stock to the saucepan. Bring back to a simmer.
  4. Heat Butter in a sauce pan and fry Flour gently, stirring until cooked but not at all browned. Take off heat and stir in just a little of the soup until you have a smooth paste, then keep stirring in more until you can pour it all back into the main pot.
  5. Bring up hot and serve with a hard cooked or poached egg.
NOTES:

  1. Nettles:

      These should be tender tops of young nettles. If you live in a region with humidity and streams you may be able to cut them yourself (wear gloves - they sting). Here in Southern California they can sometimes be obtained from herb growers at local Farmer's Markets. Incidentally, they are much more likely to sting when you brush against them lightly than when you handle them firmly. For details see our Nettles page.

  2. Chervil:

      This herb is almost never available here in Southern California. I use either brine packed chervil from a jar (available in markets serving an Armenian community) or innermost (yellow) stem of celery along with just a touch of fresh tarragon. Chefs love to call for this herb to make you feel inferior, because it is impossible to get in most of North of America. It is common in France.

  3. Do Ahead:

      I have made this soup ahead, cooled it and refrigerated it in a sealed container, finding the color was still attractive the following afternoon.
  4. U.S. measure: t=teaspoon, T=Tablespoon, c=cup, qt=quart, oz=ounce, #=pound, cl=clove in=inch, ar=as required tt=to taste
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