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Award-winning chef, author and forager Alan Bergo. Food is all around you.

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Nettle Soup with Pickled Chanterelles and Ramp Butter

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Wood nettle soup with pickled chanterelles and wild onion butterA few years ago I had the pleasure of having dinner at my friend, Author and food writer Stephen Hoffman’s house. We started the dinner with the visual and interactive French classic eclade de moules (mussels cooked in pine needles) moved onto a nice salad with anchovy dressing, and a dish of slow-cooked halibut with cherry tomatoes made by Eric Eastman. What I remember most about the evening though, was the bowl of wood nettle soup. 

Wood nettles (Laportea canadensis) don’t get nearly as much play as their cousin, the common stinging nettle (Urtica dioica) and it’s a shame, because they’re crazy delicious, with a very different flavor than typical nettles.

Besides having a different flavor (it’s more floral, where common nettles I describe as saline, or oceanic) wood nettles are also special in that they’re indigenous to North America, making them not nearly as widely available as common nettles. I like to think of them as one of the special treats I get for dealing with Midwestern winters. 

Wood Nettles or Laportea canadensis

Wood nettle (Laportea canadensis), along with Urtica gracilis, is a species native to North America.

The wood nettle soup Steve made was really good, and really simple. Some mirepoix, a potato, fresh wood nettles, and chicken stock. It was kind of half-pureed, with some of the tiny pieces of mirepoix still visible. I liked the rustic style, and had to make sure to put up a version of it here. 

Wood nettle soup with pickled chanterelles and wild onion butter

Pickled chanterelles make a great garnish and add a little sparkle to the soup.

The magic of the butter in soup 

You can make the simple nettle soup recipe by itself, but the garnishes here (wild ramp butter and pickled chanterelles) really take it from a good soup to a fantastic one. The onion butter is particularly interesting. While I was reading a book on Turkish cooking, I noticed that for a couple of their nettle soups, butter is added at the end of cooking as a flavoring.

The butter technique is a little counter-intuitive compared to Western culinary standards, but it’s a fantastic way to quickly dress up a soup. Traditionally only regular butter is used, but I usually have ramp and wild onion or ramp leaf butter on hand so it was a no-brainer to add some. You can use the butter trick for many soups made with wild greens. Try it and be changed. 

Wood nettle soup with pickled chanterelles and wild onion butter

Wood nettle soup with pickled chanterelles and wild onion butter
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Nettle Soup with Pickled Chanterelles and Ramp Butter

A simple soup of wood nettles and mirepoix, finished with wild onion butter and pickled chanterelle mushrooms.
Prep Time30 mins
Cook Time20 mins
Course: Appetizer, Main Course
Cuisine: American, French
Keyword: Chanterelle mushrooms, Nettle Soup

Ingredients

  • Soup
  • 6 oz peeled russet potatoes
  • 6 oz wood nettles
  • 1 small carrot 3oz
  • 1 small onion 4oz
  • 1 rib celery 2oz
  • 2 tablespoons unsalted butter or cooking oil
  • 4 cups chicken stock
  • 1 cup chopped peeled tomatoes optional
  • ½ cup dry white wine
  • Kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper

For finishing

  • 6 tablespoons ramp butter or similar
  • ½ cup preserved chanterelle or other mushrooms
  • Chive flowers

Instructions

Nettle soup

  • Wash and clean the nettles, then prepare a large pasta pot with a steaming basket. Steam the nettles, covered, for five minutes, or until thoroughly wilted. Remove the nettles to a tray to cool, then wring them dry and chop roughly to make sure there’s no long stems.
  • Meanwhile, chop the carrot onion and celery and sweat in the butter in a soup pot. Add the potatoes and sweat for a few minutes more.
  • Add the wine, tomatoes and stock and bring the mixture to a simmer, covered, until the potatoes are tender.
  • Add the nettles and heat through, then puree the soup with a handblender-it should not be perfectly pureed. Adjust the consistency of the soup if needed, adding a little stock if it looks too thick. Adjust the seasoning for salt and pepper until it tastes good to you.

Serving

  • Heat the butter until sizzling in a very small pot or pan. Ladle the soup while it’s quite hot into serving bowls, garnish with a few preserved mushrooms, and spoon the hot butter over the top of each bowl of soup along with the chive flowers if using, and serve.

More 

Forager’s Guide to Nettles 

Forager’s Guide to Wood Nettles 

Related

Previous Post: « How to Make Fermented Lemons
Next Post: Classic Stinging Nettle Soup »

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FORAGER | CHEF®
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Author: The Forager Chef’s Book of Flora
James Beard Award ‘22
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Alan Bergo
Milkweed buds are the second-best edible part of t Milkweed buds are the second-best edible part of the plant, besides the pods in my opinion. They need to be cooked to be edible. 

I only pick from common milkweed in areas where there’s very large colonies. 

I leave some buds to flower on each plant, I also avoid any tops that have insects or monarch caterpillars. Plenty of food to go around. 

#milkweedisafoodplant #foraging #milkweedbuds #asclepiassyriaca
HALP! I’ve been keeping an eye on two loaded mul HALP! I’ve been keeping an eye on two loaded mulberry trees and both got a bunch of fruit knocked down by the storms and wind. 

If anyone in West WI or around the Twin Cities knows of some trees, (ideally on private property but beggars can’t be choosers) that I could climb and shake with a tarp underneath, shoot me a DM and let’s pick some! 🤙😄

TIA

#throwadogabone #mansquirrel #beattlefruit #mulberries #shakintrees
Lampascioni, or edible hyacinth bulbs are one of t Lampascioni, or edible hyacinth bulbs are one of the more interesting things I’ve eaten. 

These are an ancient wild food traditionally harvested in Southern Italy, especially in Puglia and the Salentine Peninsula, as well as Greece and Crete. I’ve seen at least 6-7 different names for them. 

A couple different species are eaten, but Leopoldia comosa is probably the one I see mentioned the most. They also grow wild in North America. 

The bulbs are toxic raw, but edible after an extended boil. Traditionally they’re preserved in vinegar and oil, pickled, or preserves in other methods using acid and served as antipasti. (Two versions in pic 3). 

They’re one of the most heavily documented traditional wild foods I’ve seen. There’s a few shots of book excerpts here.

The Oxford companion to Italian Food says you can eat them raw-don’t do that. 

Even after pickling, the bulbs are aggressively extremely bitter. Definitely an acquired taste, but one that’s grown on me. 

#traditionalfoods #vampagioli #lampascione #cucinapovera #lampascioni #leopoldiacomosa #foraging
Went to some new spots yesterday looking for poke Went to some new spots yesterday looking for poke sallet and didn’t do too well (I’m at the tip of its range). I did see some feral horseradish though which I don’t see very often. 

Just like wild parsnip, this is the exact same plant you see in the store and garden-just escaped. 

During the growing season the leaves can be good when young. 

They have an aggressive taste bitter enough to scare your loved ones. Excellent in a blend of greens cooked until extra soft, preferably with bacon or similar. 

For reference, you don’t harvest the root while the plant is growing as they’ll be soft and unappealing-do that in the spring or fall. This is essentially the same as when people tell you to harvest in months that have an R in them. 

#amoraciarusticana #foraging #horseradishleaves #horseradish #bittergreens
In Italy chicken of the woods is known as “fungo In Italy chicken of the woods is known as “fungo del carrubo” (carob tree mushroom) as it’s one of the common tree hosts there. 

My favorite, and really the only traditional recipe I’ve found for them so far is simmered in a spicy tomato sauce with hot chile and capers, served with grilled bread. 

Here I add herbs too: fresh leaves of bee balm that are perfect for harvesting right now and have a flavor similar to oregano and thyme. 

Makes a really good side dish or app, especially if you shower it with a handful of pecorino before scooping it up with the bread. 

#chickenofthewoods #fungodelcarrubo #allthemushroomtags #traditionalfoods #beebalm
First of the year 😁. White-pored chicken of t First of the year 😁. 

White-pored chicken of the woods (Laetiporus cincinnatus) are my favorite chicken. 

Superior bug resistance, slightly better flavor + texture. They also stay tender longer compared to their more common yellow-pored cousins. Not a single bug in this guy. 

#treemeat #ifoundfood #foraging #laetiporuscincinnatus #chickenofthewoods
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