How to Preserve Nettles

Sarah MickeyAll Recipes, Culinary Tips & Techniques, Nettle Recipes, Wild Produce Recipes Leave a Comment

HOW TO PRESERVE NETTLES

Fresh stinging nettles are only in season in the spring, which means that if you want to enjoy them and their nutritional benefits year-round you need to preserve them. Much of the information below was inspired by a foraging trip led by Langdon Cook. Thanks, Langdon, for making our life a little more delicious!

IMPORTANT NOTE: Always handle fresh, raw nettles with gloves or tongs. Before touching or consuming nettles, it is important to take out the sting by either blanching or steaming them. See How to Prep Nettles for more information.

FREEZING BLANCHED NETTLES

Follow the instructions for How To Prep Nettles. Freeze the blanched nettles in zip top bags. We like to chop ours prior to freezing, because it makes for less work later (unchopped nettles can be stringy when cooked), but you could also chop after thawing.

FREEZING BLANCHED NETTLES

Use our Stinging Nettle Pesto Recipe to make pesto, then portion the pesto in ice cube trays. That way, it’s easy to thaw just as much as you want later. Once the cubes have frozen, move them into a zip-top bag in your freezer for long-term storage.

FREEZING NETTLE STOCK

Nettles are always blanched before eating. Don’t discard the blanching water. Use it as a vegetarian stock. Freeze it in 1 or 2 cup portions and use within a year.

DRYING NETTLE LEAVES FOR TEA

You can make nettle tea by boiling fresh leaves, or you can dry the leaves in a dehydrator for long term storage.

METHOD

1

Wearing gloves, rinse the leaves and pat them dry. A salad spinner would work even better.
2

Lay each leaf out in the dehydrator tray so it isn’t touching the others for best drying quality and speed. Set your dehydrator to 115 degrees and dry them until brittle (ours took roughly 1.5 hours).
3

Discard the stems. We found this easier to do once they are dried. The brittle leaves break away from the stem effortlessly then, but you can tear the leaves off the stems while they are still fresh. The drying process neutralizes the sting, so once dried it’s safe to handle stinging nettles without gloves.
4

When you’re ready to make nettle tea, just steep some dried leaves in hot water as you would tea leaves (or use a French press, as shown here).