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Do you have foraged stinging nettle that you’ve dried or recently collected? Make this stinging nettle-ade! It’s a refreshing sugar free lemonade recipe that’s easy to make and sugar free. It’s the perfect foraged drink recipe.
Wildcrafting Weeds
If you want to learn more about the edible and medicinal weeds that surround us and how to use them, check out my eBook: Wildcrafting Weeds: 20 Easy to Forage Edible and Medicinal Plants (that might be growing in your backyard)!
Gather & Root Online Foraging Course
My online foraging course is a great way to learn about wild edible and medicinal plants! Learn more about the gather + root online foraging course here.
Stinging Nettle Benefits
Many people know about stinging nettle, but it is much more well-known for its painful sting than its edible and medicinal qualities.
If prepared the right way, stinging nettles are delicious and nutritious! So many edible wild “weeds” are brushed off as being a nuisance, when they are actually quite tasty, and often have medicinal value as well.
Stinging nettle is a very nutritious superfood. It has a large amount of many vitamins and minerals, but is particularly high in vitamins A and C, iron, potassium, manganese, and calcium.
Related: 40+ Stinging Nettle Recipes (without the sting!)
Nettle is also a potent medicinal plant. It is commonly used for kidney and bladder problems, including urinary tract infections.
Stinging nettle is known as an all around tonic for women’s reproductive system, and is often used when trying to conceive, as well as throughout pregnancy (check with your doctor or midwife before using it during pregnancy).
Because of its high concentration of minerals, nettle is also commonly used for bone ailments such as arthritis and osteoporosis.
Stinging Nettle-Ade Recipe
The book by Mia Wasilevich titled Ugly Little Greens tells us how to cook these overlooked plants in delightful ways! That is where I got this recipe for Nettle-Ade that I’m going to share with you today.
If you don’t have any dried nettles on hand for this recipe, you can always purchase them from Mountain Rose Herbs, my favorite place to buy high quality, organic herbs.
First, steep the dried nettles. Place the nettles in a teapot or a nonreactive pot and pour the boiling water over them. Let the nettles steep for 15 minutes, then strain them from the water.
Add ice to a tall glass and muddle the honey with the preserved lemon. Pour in ½ cup (120 ml) of the strong nettle tea and finish with the sparkling water.
Photo credit: Mia Wasilevich
This Nettle-Ade recipe is surprisingly delicious!
Slightly sweet from the honey, and a pleasant tartness from the lemon make it really wonderful. It is super refreshing on a hot day!
It’s nice to know how healthy it is, too.
Nettle infusion is something that we could all use a little more of, and this is the perfect way to make it more enticing.
I’m pretty sure I’ll be making this nettle-ade all summer long with my stash of foraged dried stinging nettle!
Ugly Little Greens Book
I really love the book Ugly Little Greens by Mia Wasilevich!
She takes underutilized wild plants like dandelions, mustards, nettles, plantain, cattail, thistles, lambs quarters, mallow, watercress, and elderberries and turns them into gourmet recipes such as:
- Plantain and Purslane Poke
- Cattail Pollen Madeleines
- Nettles Benedict
- Salted Dandelion and Plantain Two Ways
- Lambsquarters Marbled Bread
- Elderflower Sangria with Summer Fruit
Both this wonderful book and this amazing Stinging Nettle-Ade recipe are highly recommended!
It’s always so much fun to actually make awesome recipes from foraged and wildcrafted ingredients. Mia’s book will help you with some of the best recipes I’ve seen for these wild edible weeds!
What is your favorite way to prepare stinging nettles?
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5 from 2 votes
Nettle-Ade
Make this refreshing Nettle-Ade with foraged stinging nettles!
Course Drinks
Cuisine American
Prep Time 5 minutes minutes
Cook Time 5 minutes minutes
Steeping Time 5 minutes minutes
Total Time 20 minutes minutes
Servings 8 servings
Calories 16kcal
Author Colleen @ Grow Forage Cook Ferment
Ingredients
US Customary - Metric
- Dried nettle leaves and stems as needed (see note)
- Boiling water as needed (see note)
- Ice as needed
- 1 tbsp honey per serving
- ⅛ preserved lemon or a ½-inch chunk per serving
- 1 cup sparkling water per serving
Instructions
To steep the dried nettles, place the nettles in a teapot or a nonreactive pot and pour the boiling water over them. Let the nettles steep for 15 minutes, then strain them from the water.
Add ice to a tall glass and muddle the honey with the preserved lemon. Pour in ½ cup (120 ml) of the strong nettle tea and finish with the sparkling water.
Notes
This recipe is from the bookUgly Little Greensby Mia Wasilevich, Page Street Publishing Co. 2017
A general rule of thumb is to use 1 tablespoon (1 g) dried nettles per 1 cup (240 ml) water. But I like to make this strong so I can enjoy it with ice and sparkling water, so I use 2 tablespoons (2 g) dried nettles per 1 cup (240 ml) water. For example, to make 4 servings, use 8 tablespoons (6 g) nettles and 4 cups (960 ml) water. It’s OK to eyeball this, as dried nettles weigh practically nothing and you won’t get a significant measurement by weight.
Nutrition
Serving: 1cup | Calories: 16kcal | Carbohydrates: 4g | Sodium: 8mg | Potassium: 8mg | Calcium: 10mg
