Foraged soup - nettle and wild garlic

   We love foraging, and today was a great day to go picking fresh nettle tops for soup. 

   They went well with the wild garlic, which my husband showed me on yesterday's walk. I had somehow never known about wild garlic. It has a distinct garlicky smell and flavour - although milder than it's commercially grown counterpart.

Here is the recipe we followed:

Serves 10

1 bag full of young nettle tops (wash well)
1 large leek (roughly chopped)
2 medium-sized onions (roughly chopped)
2 very large potatoes (peeled and chopped quite small)
1-2 cloves of garlic (chopped/crushed)
vegetable stock to taste (cube/powder, etc)
3 pints water
2.5 pints milk

4 bunches (of approx 50g) wild garlic (finely chopped) 

a little olive oil
cream (single or double)
salt and pepper

a few garlic mustard leaves for garnish (optional)

Place all ingredients in a large saucepan except the cream, wild garlic and one pint of the milk. Bring to the boil and simmer for about half an hour, then liquidise. Also, liquidise the remaining pint of milk with the chopped wild garlic. Swirl some of this and a little cream into the soup once you have put it in a bowl. Garnish with a couple of garlic mustard leaves.

Enjoy!