Stinging Nettle Soup

People in Sweden eat this in the spring with a hard-boiled egg and some nice bread. I also enjoy this soup with crushed up potato chips on top.

Ingredients

• 6 cups of stinging nettles
• 2T butter
• 2T flour
• 6 cups of chicken stock
• Chopped chives
• Salt and Pepper to taste

Optional: Hard-boiled egg

Directions

1. If you’re foraging, fill a grocery bag full of nettles. If not, I’d say 6-8 cups will do. Handle these with care as they do sting. Put some gloves on and get your nettles into the sink and let them soak in water for a few minutes. Shake them around and get as much of the dirt and rocks out of them as you can.
2. Get a big pot of water onto the stove and boil your nettles for 5 minutes. Remove them and let them cool while reserving two cups of your cooking water. As your nettles are cooling, press them a bit to get more water out.
3. Melt the butter in a pot on low heat, add the flour and make a roux, string constantly for 3 minutes. Whisk in the nettle water and the stock until smooth.
4. Finely chop your cooked nettles and add them in. Then salt and pepper to taste and garnish with the chives.