Fill a large pot halfway with water. Add ¼ cup salt and bring to a boil. Submerge nettles in water and let them boil for a few minutes. Drain them and set aside.

As the nettles boil, place garlic, lemon juice, sunflower seeds, salt and pepper in a food processor. Blend, adding water as needed until a paste forms. Add ¼ cup olive oil and the boiled nettles. Blend once more. You can add a little more water to keep the paste-like consistency. Adjust seasonings.

Enjoy with frittata, sourdough bread from one of our skilled Vermont artisan bakers and perhaps a glass of Black Sparrow dry white wine from Vermont’s Lincoln Peak Vineyards.

Healing Properties*

Nettles: iron-rich spring greens that cleanse the blood, revitalize the liver and harmonize the body’s mineral balance while providing fiber to support consistent digestion and elimination.

Lemon: awakens the pungent flavor in the body, detoxifies the lymphatic system and provides vitamin C.

Olive Oil: anti-inflammatory; rich in vitamin E and monounsaturated fats, which enhance colon health.

Sunflower seeds: contain selenium to detoxify liver and blood; contain magnesium to strengthen bones, calm nerves and support immunity.

* “Healing Properties” source information:
Foods That Heal. FoodsThatHeal.blogspot.com
Plants for a Future. PFAF.org

**A word about olive oil: Try to choose an organic brand from California, a state whose labeling we can trust. If you have a true source of Italian olive oil, you can choose that instead. To learn more about the challenges surrounding truth in olive oil labeling, read Tom Mueller’s Extra Virginity: the Sublime and Scandalous World of Olive Oil (Norton, 2011). This book, as the New York Times review explains, “demonstrates the brazen fraud in the olive oil industry and [seeks] to teach readers how to sniff out the good stuff.”