Nettle Curry

I used most of the nettles I picked last week in a quick cauliflower curry.



- Saute chopped onions and garlic in a little olive oil until soft
- Add turmeric, mustard seed, coriander, cumin, and salt and saute a few more minutes
- Add chopped cauliflower and tomatoes or tomato sauce (I used some that I'd frozen from last Summer) and cook until the cauliflower is tender - might need to add a little water
- Add chopped nettles, spinach, or other greens, and cook another couple minutes
- Taste for seasoning

I ate this with chickpea crepes - also really quick and easy. It would have been good with potatoes and/or chickpeas in it, but I didn't have any on hand.

I was hoping to have some morels to post about this weekend, but it looks like they need a little more rain and a little more time. Maybe next week!

Down by the river

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood, so I went to the hardware store down the street to buy some decently protective work gloves. Then I went down to the woods on the river bank, just a few blocks from my house, to look for nettles. And I found some!

I also picked some dandelion greens, violets, and mint, just because it was there and off the beaten path enough that I think it's all pretty clean. I saw a lot of yarrow, but since I'm not sure what to do with it other than make some tea I doubt I'd like, I left it alone.



The dandelion greens will probably end up in a salad with the violets, and the mint will end up in tea and/or mint juleps, depending on where the weekend goes. The nettles might be made into pesto, or maybe just braised, put in soup, or sauteed like spinach. I blanched them for a couple minutes to take the sting off and make them friendlier to handle when I'm cooking them.



Most people treat this stuff as weeds, but I love eating foods I know weren't cultivated for size, color, shelf life...pretty much anything but taste and nutrient value. Wild foods are good for you! I mean, so long as you're sure about what you're picking.

I was hoping to find some fiddleheads or ramps, but no such luck. I'll try someplace a little less disturbed in the next couple weeks.