Nettle soup
Dried black lime gives a lovely sour flavour to this soup made with foraged nettles, mussels and a swirl of either cr猫me fra卯che or thick yoghurt. Garnish with wild garlic or wild three-cornered leek flowers.
Ingredients
- 100驳/3陆辞锄 unsalted butter
- 100驳/3陆辞锄 leek (about 陆 leek), finely sliced
- 150驳/5陆辞锄 potato (about 1 small potato), peeled and finely sliced
- 1 litre/1戮 pint good-quality flavoured stock (chicken, vegetable or mussel)
- 100驳/3陆辞锄 new potatoes (tiny Jersey Royal 鈥榤ids鈥 are ideal)
- 1 dried black lime听
- 500g/1lb 2oz mussels, washed and beards removed 听
- splash white wine
- 1 lime, zest and juice only
- 500g/1lb 2oz nettles, picked from their stems and washed, a few tiny ones reserved for garnish听
- 100驳/3陆辞锄 cr猫me fra卯che or thick yoghurt听
- salt, to taste
To serve
- wild garlic or wild three-cornered leek flowers
Method
To make the nettle soup, heat half of the butter in a pan and then add the leek and potato with a little salt and cook until translucent. Add the stock and bring to a simmer. Cook until the vegetables are very soft (5 minutes if they are sliced thinly).
In a separate pan, cook the new potatoes in boiling salted water until tender.
Grind the black lime to a powder in a spice grinder or coffee grinder, or with a mortar and pestle.
Meanwhile, discard any mussels that do not close when tapped.
Add a splash of wine to a hot lidded pan and tip the mussels in. Steam until all the shells are opened (discard any that do not open). Tip the mussels onto a tray and allow to cool slightly. Pick the mussels from their shells and strain the liquor to add to the soup. Add the lime zest to the liquor, but do not add the lime juice yet.
When the vegetables are cooked, add the nettles to the pan. Put a lid on the pan and bring to a boil. Cook quickly for 1鈥2 minutes, or until the nettles are soft.
Tip everything into a blender and blend until smooth (about 1鈥2 minutes), adding the the remaining 50g/1戮oz butter and a little of the cr猫me fra卯che, plus the reserved mussel liquor with lime zest. Return to a clean pan to warm through. Taste and add salt if needed, and at the last minute add the lime juice.听
To serve, distribute the mussels and cooked tiny potatoes between warm bowls. Ladle in the soup, add a final blob of cr猫me fra卯che, some small nettles for garish, and scatter over the black lime. Add a final garnish of wild garlic or wild three-cornered leek flowers to finish (if available).
