With the little bit of heat we have greatly received over the last couple of days, all sorts of wild green plants have sprung to life, including stinging nettles. What was lying dormant as small shoots, have all at once shot up 30 cm in just a few days. I find springtime incredible, and if you are lucky enough to have a garden to view every day, you can really notice the fast pace at which the vegetation grows. Instead of mowing down your nettle patch, try using them in your cooking! Here I have created a recipe using a few handfuls of nettles added to bread dough. Its delicious, and nutritious!
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Makes 6 large sandwich rolls
1 tsp easy bake yeast
500g organic shipton mill strong white flour
1 tbsp honey
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp salt
a big handful of scolded and chopped nettles
350ml luke warm water
6 extra big nettle leaves for the top
1 egg
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Start by harvesting your stinging nettles, with gloves on. Once home, pour a kettle of boiling water over the nettle leaves to remove the sting, then drain. Select 6 big leaves for the top and set aside, then chop the remaining nettles, discarding the stems.
In a large bowl mix together the flour, salt and yeast. Then add the water, honey and oil. Add the chopped nettles, mix well to form a soft dough. Turn out on a floured surface and knead for 10 min by hand until the dough is smooth and elastic. Drizzle a little olive oil into a bowl, pop the dough in, cover and leave to rise in a warm spot for 2 hours, or until doubled in size.
When risen, divide the dough into 6 balls and place on a greased baking tray. Cover with a tea-towel and leave to rise for an additional 45 min. Once risen brush with the beaten egg, place a nettle leaf on top of each roll, and brush with the egg again.
In a preheated oven at 220 °c / fan 200°c / gas 6, bake for 35 min, until golden. The rolls are ready when they sound hollow when tapped on the bottom.
Camera & Clementine 
So KOOL! I love nettles but never thought about this.
Thank you! Yes, nettles are really great for so many things, tea, soup etc.
Adapted this recipe for use in a bread maker. Steamed the nettles for five minutes then used the green water in the bread. 350g of white +150g of wholemeal flour. A very tasty and moist loaf.
Great use of nettles!
Very excited to try this. I saw Nettle Bread featured last night on Alaska’s Last Frontier, a Discovery Channel show about the homesteading Kilcher family.
I’ve heard of that show, but not yet seen it, how fun! Ill need to check it out. Nettles are great, they dont have a huge flavour, but are very vitamin rich. x
I am just now watching it on Netflix, it is an awesome show. I googled the Nettle Bread because I have never heard of it until seeing it on this show. I think I will probably try it now.
Glad your googling ended you up here 🙂 Yes, give it a go, its very tasty.
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Any thoughts on a gluten free flour blend?Thinking maybe an oat flour/tapioca/xanthum combo?
Hey, thanks for your question. Strangely enough I was just today talking about posting a gluten free recipe. Oat flour is a good starting point as is the tapioca. But I would personally be tempted to use chia in stead of Xanthum, as I have an in built dislike to man-made ‘edible’ products, especially the ones starting with x! 🙂 I will try to post a gluten free bread recipe by next week. Hope that helps!
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I am a Californian who lived in Sweden for a year. The local small town bakery made and sold nettle bread. But, the bread was a verdant true green color,..and delicious.I would very much like to find a recipe for the truly green colored nettle bread.
Hi, I think if you blended a batch of nettles with the required water and used that you would get a lovely green bread! x
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