James Wong’s Nettle Pesto
May 2nd, 2009 by admin
I’ll start by declaring that I’m an ardent fan of ethnobotanist James Wong, his BBC series Grow Your Own Drugs and the accompanying book, which I bought before the TV series had even ended. His passion for plants is infectious, and his style of presenting natural and relaxed. In each programme, he shows people with various ailments how to make home-made natural remedies such as echinacea ice lollies for colds and flu, valerian hot chocolate for anxiety, hops pillow for insomnia and crystallised ginger for morning and travel sickness.
Most of the ingredients (flowers, fruit, vegetables, roots, trees and herbs) can be found either in one’s garden, kitchen cupboard or growing in the wild, although some are a little trickier to source. He made the preparation of the remedies and beauty products (I like the sound of lavender bath bombs!) appear so easy that I decided to buy the book and make some things myself.
The hardback book is divided into three sections with an introduction on how to get started at home, the remedies (digestive disorders, skin complaints, kids, aches and pains, women’s stuff, under the weather, mind, face and body) and a substantial section on the top 100 medicinal plants, including marshmallow, feverfew and eyebright. The recipes for the remedies are clearly written and easy to understand and follow, with a short list of ingredients, followed by simple instructions.
As I need to source ingredients such as glycerine, gelatine and beeswax before I can start making things, including organic rose beeswax lip balm, I thought I’d test out one of his few recipes for actual food! After tweeting about it for most of the day on Twitter, I finally got round to making nettle pesto, even though it did mean going out in the pouring rain to pick the tender nettle tips from our huge patch (wearing thick gardening gloves). When we re-do the garden, some of these prized weeds will be dug up, moved to a new position and lovingly pampered!
Nettle Pesto (taken from the book Grow Your Own Drugs by James Wong)
‘…nettles (Urtica dioica) are packed with nourishing vitamins, minerals and chlorophyll, and help to build up natural immunity and protect from infections after a long winter’.
‘The young spring tips are the most tender, and tastiest. Just cook a big handful of the young nettle tips (about 150g) in boiling water for about 2 minutes. Drain, then drop into a blender along with some freshly grated Parmesan, 2 chopped garlic cloves, a handful of pine nuts and about 80ml olive oil. Whiz until smooth, then spoon over freshly cooked pasta and mix in well’.
I didn’t follow the measurements precisely, but if you’ve made pesto before, it’s exactly the same, just using nettle tips instead of basil. The lovely vibrant colour was a pleasant surprise, as was the delicious flavour the nettles produced. I highly recommend making nettle pesto with your garden nettle tips! I’ll be using nettles a lot more from now on..(NB we’ve had this three times now, and are planning other dishes with nettles!)
Have a look at some of the Other Recipes on World Foodie Guide.
Excellent !!! Never thought of natural remedies. Would love to try especially after reading his short bibliography that he had been trained at Royal Botanic Garden. Thanks for sharing !
I really want to try nettles – what do they actually taste like?
I like his book too, packed with good ideas for natural remedies and personal beauty care. Neat!
Damien – I really recommend the book. There are so many things I want to make that I haven’t made any of them yet! The section on the plants is great too. Half price on Amazon at the moment, and I’ve just bought a copy for a friend.
Helen – to be honest, I’ve only had them whizzed in the pesto, but next time I’ll try one after blanching and let you know.
adel – lovely to meet a fan of James Wong! Can’t stop talking about him, the series and the book. I feel like I’m his agent…
Helen Yuet Ling
I have to get this book, it sounds so intriguing – I have a couple similar ones but it sounds like I have a hole in my collection. I’ve not tried nettle pesto, but love nettles, to me they taste like spinach, intensely green, if that makes sense – at least that was my impression from the batches I got from my CSA. I have to say, I was intrigued to be cooking something that required me to wear gloves to avoid breaking out.
I have tried nettle only once: it was made into a pasta so I’m not sure that I got the full effect of flavor. A couple of bloggers from Turkey, Ozge of Spirited Miu Flavor (http://spiritedmiuflavor.blogspot.com/2009/04/turkish-pan-borek-w-nettle-feta-phyllo.html)
and Zerrin of GiveRecipe (http://www.giverecipe.com/borek-with-stinging-nettle-herb.html) have also recently posted nettle recipes. It seems to be the hot new ingredient! If I can’t find it at the grocery or farmer’s market, perhaps I’ll have to start foraging in the backyard . . .
LOL! I have 4 acres full of nettles. I can make a TON of pesto.
It’s funny how we are all happy to grow other herbs that come in paper seed packets (or drink branded nettle tea bags), but fearful of those that naturally occur in the garden. I too, was a bit trepidatious before sampling our nettle pesto but the flavour was so intense I’ve made it twice more since then.
Next up will be nettles sauted with shallots and garlic, then maybe added to a salad of cannellini beans, celery and fresh tomato.
That looks great, Helen. Almost tempts me to go foraging!
8.30 am, just woke up, saw your pic of pasta and nettle pesto, and now must get up and make spaghetti! For breakfast!
x
OysterCulture – I think you’d really like the book. As for how nettles taste like, that’s how the husband described them – very ‘green’.
Tangled Noodle – thank you for the links! It does seem to be the hot new ingredient. If you were closer, I’d post you half my nettle patch!
LunaCafe – you could make so many things with nettles! We’re going to sautee them in garlic next time, Chinese style…
GP – sounds delicious to me, how about for lunch today?
frugalcook – I’m always a bit nervous about foraging, but I feel safe in my own messy garden!
MsMarmitelover – spaghetti for breakfast sounds delicious!
Helen Yuet Ling
Hi there,
does anyone know where i could find nettles in London (aside from my neighbour’s backyard)?
Nanders – if you know there are some in your neighbour’s backyard, why don’t you use those? Otherwise try foraging in places like Highgate Woods or Hampstead Heath perhaps?
Helen Yuet Ling