Tag Archives: leaves

Nettle Pesto

Spring is all about the wild, young greens so vibrant and tempting after the long, barren winter. Besides salads, where delicate leaves such as ramson, celandine or dandelion are best consumed fresh and raw, there’s a variety of traditional dishes where one can enjoy the more rough ones such as nettles or docks in cooked versions.

This recipe here came about unexpected, as I have been making a lot of the traditional nettle dish this spring. One day friends were announced for lunch and so that morning I put a handful of cashews to soak. After a few hours, between preparing other dishes, I blanched the nettles (without even removing the stems), thrown them in the food processor over the cashews and added olive oil, quite some lemon juice and, at the end, two small bundles of lovage – what was to give the very special flavour to this dish. I guess some fresh ground pepper could also work in there.

The pesto turned out so rich and yet so fresh, that I decided it needed a patent :)) We had it next to potatoes and coleslaw and of course some fresh spring leaves. Enjoy it too!

Green Start to The Day

Everybody agrees upon the high detox power of greens. And there’s no better way to start the day than with a big mug of green smoothie. Trust me, you will feel the effects in no more than a week: more energy, lighter body, brighter eyes! It is true that you need a good blender for that, but it’s totally worth it.

There’s no real recipe for green smoothies, just two basic rules:

  • try not to mix sweet fruits (banana, dried fruits) with acid fruits (citrics, pineapple, pomegranate, tomato) *
  • try to alternate daily the types of leaves you use (read here why)

You can actually have any kind of greens you wish, even the ones that wouldn’t taste so good in salads, like radish, kohlrabi or carrot. Not to mention the incredible array of wild edible greens! If you do have access to something like this, it would make the best detox ever.

Just add the fruits and the leaves in the blender, along with a few cups of water and mix until you get the specific smoothie texture.  My usual add-ons are:

– one or two tsp of spirulina/ chlorella powder (any other green powder is welcomed)

– a handful of mint, basil or melissa leaves

– grated ginger

As much as you can, try to go with local, seasonal ingredients. If you’re a first timer, start in summer, so you can have plenty of fruits and greens to choose from.

some smoothie making snapshots

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more about food combining herehere and here – depends how far you want to go with it 🙂

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