Foraged food: dead nettles

Foraging dead nettles and our vegan herb Butter recipe

We love dead nettles and they've appeared on our menu in our pasta dishes, along with other plants we forage locally like wild garlic.

This very common plant has a grassy, herbaceous taste and beautiful creamy flowers. 

Dead nettles are slightly different to their stinging counterpart in that they are totally safe to pick without gloves. Look for soft green leaves with white flowers hidden underneath.

As well as being delicious, the leaves are high in calcium, potassium, magnesium and iron. You can eat them raw, cooked or even as an herbal tea.

Where can you find dead nettles?

Dead nettles are really easy to find. You'll find them from Spring onwards, around riverbanks. Here in Stirchley, they can be found all along the river Rea route.

Foraging responsibly

When foraging for wild plants it's really important to forage responsibly. Make sure to minimise damage, only take what you need and leave plenty behind for wildlife and regeneration.

Important: proper identification of plants is your it is important to cross reference multiple reliable sources before consuming any wild food. This website, newsletters, and social media do not hold any responsibility or liability for any consequences that may arise from consuming or using any wild food based on the information provided.

Vegan dead nettle Herb Butter recipe

We love using this recipe in the restaurant to preserve some of the soft herbs like dead nettles and wild garlic. It’s also our vegan butter that we serve with our treacle & granary bread. Compound ‘butters’ are a great way of preserving wild herbs so they last longer. This can be kept in the freezer for up to a month. 

Ingredients

150g of vegan butter, softened (dairy butter can be used too)

20g of wild garlic and other foraged herbs

1 tsp flaky salt 

Method

Wash and dry the wild herbs, removing any harder stalks, then chop them finely. Use a very sharp knife to get fine shreds. 

Add the leaves to softened butter with a large pinch of sea salt. Mix to distribute evenly. Taste and add more salt if needed. 

To freeze, wrap in a neat cling film baton. Roll out about 40cm of cling film. Wipe over the cling film with the cloth to smooth, then add a second layer of cling film on top and smooth it again. 

Spoon out the soft butter into a log. Wrap the film very tightly round the butter, then roll up the rest of the cling film around it. Making sure to squeeze out all of the air, knot the clingfilm at each end. 

To use the butter, take it out of the freezer 10 minutes before you need it. Slice off however many portions you need, then return the rest of the log to the freezer. 

If you try this dead nettle recipe we'd love to see your pictures. Tag us on Instagram @verbenakitchen.