Nettle soup with camembert

Puoi trovare la versione italiana qui: Zuppa di ortica e falsa ortica con camembert

First, I need to thank Mark for his wonderful website packed with information about wild foraging, and from where I have taken the idea of this recipe: http://www.gallowaywildfoods.com/super-simple-nettle-soup-with-some-even-wilder-suggestions/

I always loved to forage since I was a kid. My first love were blackberries, figs, and wild asparagus that are very abundand in Italy were I used to live. And I have to admit that when the summer comes in UK, I really miss my fig hunting. I have mentally mapped some fig trees here in Brighton, and every year, full of hopes, I go and have a look to see if miraculously some of the figs are ripe. Sadly, usually they are not, apart from the super hot summer in 2018, when I managed to pick about 7-8 ripe and delicious figs. I really made my day!! 😊

Growing up I extended the hunting to other plants like rosehips, and some green leaves such as stinging nettle and dandelion. And since I moved in Brighton I started to learn other plants that I never picked when I was in Italy, for example the white dead nettle (Lamium album) and the red dead nettle (Lamium purpureum), hawthorn berries, and elderberries. It's always so satisfactory to learn some new plants around us that are good to be eaten.

The only good thing of this lockdown for the corona virus is that I have more time for slow walks in search of edible food. Even more appreciated when going to the supermarket would require so much more time than usual.
So, in my latest foraging I picked lot of stinging nettle, white and red dead nettles, a few dandelion leaves and flowers, and a bunch of cowslip leaves, to prepare this delicious soup.

Ingredients
butter
3 small onions
250 g potatoes
vegetable stock (or vegetable stock cubes + water)
250 g of a mix of stinging nettle, white and red dead nettles, a few dandelion leaves and flowers, and a bunch of cowslip leaves (however, the choice is up to you!)
Camembert
Oil, salt, pepper

- Melt the butter with the sliced onion and let them cook gently for about 5 minutes
- Add the chopped potatoes and let it cook gently for another 5 minutes
- Add about 200 g of the mixed nettles
- Add the vegetable stock and let it cook until the potatoes are soft
- Blend everything smoothly, add some salt.
- Add the rest of the nettles and let them soften

The soup is ready!

- I do love cheese, so I added thin slices of camembert on top that will melt a bit with the warmth of the soup, and finished with a teaspoon of olive oil and cracked black pepper.

Let me know if you liked it!