Nettle Puree
Simple Recipes Fasting Recipes Budget Recipes Vegetables Romanian
Vegan nettles, cooked Pitesti-style.
Until this year, I used to prepare nettles like Transylvanian spinach. Two weeks ago, a cousin from Pitesti came to visit and you know how it is when two women start chatting for hours - inevitably we end up talking about food and exchanging recipes. She told me that in Pitesti, nettles are eaten with horseradish and polenta. My ears perked up immediately when I heard about horseradish. I had never heard of this combination, but I trust traditional recipes. If they weren't successful, they wouldn't have survived so many generations to become traditional, right? Yesterday I managed to put the recipe into practice, following the detailed instructions I received, and I loved how the earthy, almost mushroom-like taste of nettles combined with the horseradish. From now on, I'll stick to this method of cooking nettles, especially since it's also vegan.
Ingredients
300 g nettles (weighed after sorting and cleaning)
45 g all-purpose flour (about 2 tablespoons)
3 medium cloves of garlic
3-4 tablespoons oil
grated horseradish (prepared, from a jar)
salt, black pepper
Servings: 3-4
How to prepare nettle puree
- Sort and clean the nettles, especially if you didn't pick them yourself but bought them at the market (they might have thicker stems, blades of grass, or straw among them, so it's good to sort them one by one). In the end, I was left with 300 g. Wash well in several changes of water until the water runs clean. Wear gloves when doing these operations so you don't get stung.
- Bring salted water to a boil and when it's boiling, add the nettles. Cover and simmer over low heat (10-15 minutes).
- Drain the nettles but collect the water they boiled in. Chop the nettles very finely (either give them a few pulses in a food processor or run a wide knife over them several times).
- In a pot, add the oil and when hot, add the flour. Reduce heat to low. Stir with a whisk until the flour is dissolved in the oil and looks like a cream.
- Gradually add the hot water in which the nettles boiled (600 ml), while continuing to stir with the whisk. You'll get a sauce like thin sour cream. Add salt and black pepper.
- Add the chopped nettles and mix well. Continue to simmer over low heat for another 10 minutes, just enough to cook the flour. Taste for salt and pepper. Add the crushed garlic and let it boil a few more times. Add horseradish to taste (I added 1 teaspoon of horseradish at a time until I had a subtle horseradish flavor; about 6 teaspoons).
- Serve the nettle puree warm, with polenta and grated horseradish for those who want more.
