Wood Nettles

Young wood nettles, at the best stage for eating.

If you know and love stinging nettle like I do, you’re going to love wood nettle or Laportea canadensis, for a couple different reasons I’ll get into, not least of which is their flavor. First though, I think it’s interesting to know some of the different characteristics that differentiate it from the nettle most people know: common stinging nettle, or Urtica dioica.

Mature stinging nettles

Stinging nettles have a more prominent place in American culture, although saying prominent is being really, really generous as most people still consider them annoying weeds. One, and likely the biggest reason for that is stinging nettles have been enjoyed in Europe for a very long time, and when immigrants from Europe came to America, they brought with them their culinary knowledge of plants.

As the traditional nettle cooked in Europe was Urtica dioica, it naturally became the nettle of choice, since it was the only nettle they knew. This makes total sense, but those early immigrants were missing out on our Indigenous North American nettle (wood nettle).

The good news is you don’t have to pick just one, you can enjoy both.

Young stinging nettles may come up purple, a natural resistance to frost. This is absent in young wood nettle.

One of the best reasons for getting to know this plant is that it will expand the amount of wild greens you can pick and harvest. Stinging nettle is one, if not the very first plant I cook each year in the spring. Wood nettle does us a solid by maturing later, so as stinging nettles begin to grow tall and tough, the wood nettles are at a great stage for eating, although there are a usually a good couple weeks of overlap where you can cook the two together.

Wood nettles can grow in very large stands. These are still edible, but I would chop the greens up after cooking.

Flavor

This is another reason to look for these. Stinging nettles have a certain flavor that increases with their age, it’s a sort of almost fishy, saline quality. I like the taste, and it’s actually very important in my nettle soup as it plays off the garnishes that love a little oceanic taste: quail eggs and dill, and sometimes herring caviar if I have an expensive dinner coming up.

“Wood nettle is like a deep, rich spinach of the woods”

Wood nettles and stinging nettles make an excellent soup: one of the most traditional ways nettles are enjoyed.

While I like this taste stinging nettles have, it can be too strong for some people, especially when it’s older. The flavor of wood nettles is like a deep, rich spinach of the woods. It’s mild tender,  and almost like a little vegetable when the tender stems and leaves are blanched. Wood nettles do have a flavor though, and depending on how you cook them, it can be quite strong, so strong in fact that some people may not care for them. If you like big flavors like I do though, you’ll want to give it a shot at least once. 

Steaming 

Blanching is what most people will be familiar when cooking nettles is brought up, but steaming is the best way I’ve found to harness their true flavor. The flavor of wood nettles, unlike stinging nettles and their aquatic taste, is deeply perfumed. When I taste steamed wood nettles I taste floral aromas like the scent of apple and cherry blossoms, it’s a very interesting flavor, and I’ve never tasted anything quite like it. If you blanch them, you won’t taste it at all. 

Wood nettle has way more stingers than stinging nettle. I use gloves to harvest them.

More Sting Than Stinging Nettle 

The only thing wood nettle has more of than stinging nettle is in the sting, literally. I have no problem picking stinging nettles carefully by hand, wood nettles are a different story though. The stingers are much more pronounced, especially as the plant ages, and unless you are very dextrous and careful (it can be done by only touching the middle of the leaves) you’ll want to wear gloves when you pick these, at least on one hand. The stingers are so pronounced that they will go through clothes, even my heavy duty foraging pants, something that rarely if ever happens when I pick stinging nettles.

Wood nettle shoots 

Wood nettle shoots are one of the biggest differences that Laportea canadensis has from common stinging nettles. The shoots are delicious, and a bit like thin asparagus with a few tender leaves on the top. I highly recommend them. 

Wood nettle shoots. Look at all that delicious stem! 

General Harvesting, Storing and Cooking 

I like to use a scissors to clip the young tops of the plants, or the shoots when they’re young. I put the leaves in a paper bag, then bring them home and refresh in a sink of cold water.

After they get refreshed in the water, they get thoroughly dried (this is important, if there is too much moisture left over from washing the nettles will disolor and go bad rapidly) and put in a plastic zip loc with a damp towel and a hole punched in the top for air. Kept like this, wood nettles will keep for at least a week or two in your fridge: a wonderful shelf life for fresh greens.

To cook wood nettles, treat them just like stinging nettles. There’s two options here, blanched, or cooked from raw, depending on what I’m doing I like both preparations. (Another option is that nettles can also be frozen raw after washing, then thawed, which will also denature the pokey parts.)

Steamed wood nettle shoots with acorn oil.

To blanch wood nettles for freezing or storage

Blanching is useful if you want to freeze your nettles, or if you want to just free up some space and process and hold mass quanities of greens, like I often do during the season. Here’s the method:

Have a cold water or ice bath ready. Bring a stock pot half full of water to a simmer, then add salt until the water tastes like the sea. Working in  batches, put the nettles in the simmering water using tongs or gloves for a about 30 seconds and stir until they’re completely wilted. Remove the nettles to the cold water to chill, then repeat the process with the remaining nettles.

After the nettles are all blanched, squeeze the water out as much as you can, then transfer to a labeled, dated contiainer and refrigerate or freeze until needed. It’s very important to use salted water, blanching food in unsalted water will have a much shorter shelf life as well as making things taste better.

Butter glazed nettles.

Why are my blanched nettles dark? 

The nettles need to be blanched for at least 30 seconds. Underblanching can result in the chlorphyll green not being locked in, resulting in splotchy dark spots, or nettles that are completely brown, and not green. Not shocking nettles in cold or ice water can also cause this.

To cook wood nettles from raw

Take your washed, dried wood nettles and, using gloves or tongs put them into a wide pan with a lid, add a little butter and stock, salt and pepper to taste. Cook, covered until the nettles are totally wilted and hot throughout, about 4-5 minutes, then drain and serve. My favorite preparation is to glaze them with butter and their natural juices.

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Steamed Wood Nettles

Simple steamed nettles are a great way to harness the full flavor and power of your wild nettles.

Prep Time5 mins

Cook Time5 mins

Course: Appetizer, Side Dish

Cuisine: American

Keyword: nettles, Stinging Nettles

Servings: 4

Ingredients

• 8 oz fresh young wood nettles
• Highest quality salted butter at room temperature, for serving
• Flaky finishing salt or kosher salt, to taste
• Fresh ground black pepper to taste
• Fresh lemon wedges for serving optional

Instructions

• Submerge the nettles in a sink of cold water quickly after harvesting to clean them, then allow to drain in a colander.
• Put a steamer basket in a tall pasta pot, and fill with water (roughly 2-3 cups) until it almost touches the bottom of the steamer basket.
• Put the lid on the pot and heat on high until the water is boiling and the pot is ready, then add the nettles, handling them with tongs if you’re scared of their sting*, put the lid on the pot and set a timer for 4minutes.
• After 4 minutes, taste a nettle to make sure you like the texture (older nettles, or those with a higher proportion of stem may take longer, and preferences can vary) I prefer very young nettles cooked only as briefly as is needed to denature the sting, this should take anywhere from 4-5 minutes and does not seem to denature the sting as quickly as blanching.
• When the nettles taste good to you, remove them a serving bowl, bring to the table while still very hot so you don’t rob any dinner guests of the pleasure that is watching soft butter melt into them on a plate.
• Pass the butter, salt, and lemon around the table.

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Butter Glazed Nettles

A simple recipe for nettles glazed in their own juices serves 2-4 as a side

Prep Time5 mins

Cook Time10 mins

Course: Side Dish

Cuisine: American

Keyword: Stinging Nettles, Wood Nettles

Servings: 4

Ingredients

• 8 oz fresh tender stinging nettles or wood nettles in the summer, nettle tips can be gathered
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter or more
• Kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper
• Water or stock a small amount--just enough to wilt them

Instructions

• Put 1/2 inch of water in a wide or deep pan that can fit the nettles.
• Pack the nettles in, cover the pot and turn the heat to high. When the pan is hot, take of the heat and stir the nettles around to help with them, then put the cover back on the pot and cook some more.
• Continue cooking, reducing the heat if the pan threatens to dry out, until the nettles are tender and taste good to you. When they're tender, drain off as much liquid as you can, then add the butter, salt and pepper to taste and continue cooking, stirring rapidly to distribute the seasonings.
• Taste the nettles again and adjust the seasoning for salt or more butter. When they're delicious, buttery and tender and most of the remaining liquid has cooked into the leaves, serve.