For a vegetable that grows on land, nettles sure make a broth that tastes like the sea. In San Diego we have had rain lately, so the Nettles are up and happy and large and green, and already starting to flower, so I have seized the day, and marched into the canyon at Morley Field and collected some choice specimens, washed them, and boiled them in water. They developed such a beautiful color i could only call "Deep Medium-Dark Ultra Green." Darker than a banana leaf, but lighter than cooked spinach.
So I took my left over Basmati rice, and sauteed some ghee with a couple of teaspoons of dill and a dash of cinnamon and salt and black pepper and some previously boiled green (young) broad beans that you can get at the Iranian market frozen, i am not sure if they are Lima beans or Fava, they look to me like Fava, until the smell was nice, and added my rice and stirred it for a while till the dill and rice got to know each other real well.
On the side a nice big lump of boiled nettles. They taste a lot like spinach. Even the stems were tender. But the broth, which would be a marvelous base for miso soup, reminds me of the ocean, of the smell of sea vegetables like Arame or Hijiki or Wakame or Kombu. That I had in a mug at the end of the meal, like an after meal tea.
The roots looked really good, too. I will definitely boil them next time, but i did not have the energy to clean them, the held a lot of soil.
Ayurveda, Acupuncture, and Chinese Medicine in San Diego
http://www.bodymindwellnesscenter.com
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