Cooking Nettles and Wild Greens

Soup, pie and pan greens from plants you know

5 minBeginnerUpdated 2026-10-23 Cooking Nettles and Wild Greens

You will learn

Pick and cook stinging nettles safely
Turn a few known wild greens into soup and pan greens
Know which greens need cooking and which to eat in moderation

⚠️ Never eat any plant that has not been positively identified. Cooking does not make a poisonous plant safe.

⚠️ Do not pick beside roads, sprayed fields or polluted water.

⚠️ If anyone feels ill after eating a wild plant, call emergency services and keep a sample of the plant.

Only the plants you know

This lesson only covers greens that are easy to identify: stinging nettle, and others in the Plant Guide marked unmistakable or straightforward. Some deadly plants, like hemlock and foxglove, grow in the same places and can look similar when young. If you have not confirmed every identification feature in the Plant Guide, do not pick it. Never pick greens beside busy roads, sprayed fields or where dogs walk.

💡 Unsure is a no. Read the Plant Guide entry and its deadly lookalikes before you pick.

Stinging nettles

Nettles are one of the richest wild foods: iron, calcium, vitamin C and protein. Pick only the top four to six young leaves of each plant, in spring before it flowers, wearing gloves. Wash them, then drop them in boiling water for 1 to 2 minutes: the sting is gone completely. Drain and squeeze. Now use them exactly like spinach. Avoid old nettles after flowering: they develop gritty particles that can irritate the urinary tract.

💡 Gloves to pick, one minute in boiling water, and the sting is gone.

Nettle and potato soup

Fry an onion, add two potatoes chopped small and a litre of water with salt, and simmer 20 minutes. Add a large bowl of blanched nettles, simmer 3 minutes, then crush or blend. It is Portugal's caldo verde, made with wild greens instead of kale. Pan greens: fry blanched nettles or other known greens with garlic and oil for 3 minutes, and eat with bread or potatoes.

Moderation with some greens

Sorrel, dock and wood sorrel are sour because they are high in oxalic acid. A handful in a soup is fine; large amounts every day are not, especially for anyone with kidney stones. Cooking and throwing away the water lowers the oxalate. Variety is the rule: a little of several known greens is healthier than a lot of one.