Nettle chips and Nettle Gamasio

It is prime nettle harvesting time, and I've been out several times in the past week to collect, with great reverence, this amazing plant. I think that nettles might be my favorite foraged food - they are perhaps the one I rely on most throughout the year, and feel profound gratitude for. In addition to all the good vitamins, I just learned that they help with allergies and hay fever. 😍

I primarily harvest nettles to eat as food, because that is my favorite, especially after a long winter without fresh greens. To have abundant nettles (along with my green onions) is such bounty! Last weekend I decided to branch out a little: I made some Nettle Chips (think kale chips, or those seaweed chip things), and I also dehydrated a bunch to use for tea and this Nettle Gomasio (which is genius). It turns out I really like nettles with sesame seeds, which both of these recipes feature. The combo sort of ups the seaweed taste of the nettles, in a good way.

Nettle chips are a little fussy - you have to remove the nettle leafs from each stem (using gloves because they are still stingy), but they ARE delicious.

Nettle Chips, inspired from this post:

• A few tong-fulls of fresh nettle leaves (picked off the stem) - think a loose 2 cups
  
• 2 T olive oil
• 1 tsp magic mushroom powder (or use half as much salt)
• 1-2 T sesame seeds

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees while you de-stem your nettles (using gloves). I rinsed mine and spun them in my lettuce spinner to get the water off.*
   
2. Using tongs, toss the nettle leaves in a bowl with the other ingredients. Spread the leaves (using your tongs again) in a single layer on 2 baking sheets. 
3. Bake for about 6-10 minutes until they crisp up. (The original recipe said to flip half way through. I did that with one pan, and not with the other, and couldn't tell a difference. I was using one of those insulated cookie sheets that prevents burning. If you have a regular cookie sheet, keep a close eye on things.)
   
4. Consume! These stay crisp for at least many days in a tupperware sort of container, so no need to eat all at once unless you want to.
   

*Note I did also try making some of these in the dehydrator while I was dehydrating other nettles, and that also worked, though took longer. No risk of over-crisping there!

 

This was my first time drying nettles in a dehydrator, and it goes pretty quickly, not more than a few hours. Once I got the leaves in the jar, I used my rolling pin end to pulverize them. 7 trays of dried nettles resulted in one quart of dried leaves (for tea), and about 1 1/2 cups of dried nettle powder, some of which went into this Gomasio.

Nettle Gomasio, originally posted here: 

• ½ cup raw, unhulled sesame seeds
• 2 Tbsp. sea salt
  
• 1 Tbsp. ground or finely shredded nori, kombu, and/or wakame
• 1 Tbsp. dried nettle powder
• ½ Tbsp. dried thyme
• ½ Tbsp. dried sage
• ½ Tbsp. dried rosemary

1. In a cast iron pan, toast sesame seeds and salt on medium heat until a few seeds start to pop.
2. Turn off the heat and transfer mixture to a mortar, then add seaweed and herbs.
3. Using a pestle or food processor, grind mixture coarsely, leaving about half the sesame seeds intact.
4. Store in a sealed glass jar, ideally on your table or counter where you can use as often as desired.

This goes great on just about anything: salad, veggies, rice, eggs, whatever. Yum. I also think this would make a great foodie gift.