Nettles in my soup

I decided to try eating nettles. They grow as weeds in the garden. They hurt, too. I can see why they take more calories to prepare than they provide.

I wore leather gloves to pick them. I picked only young plants a couple inches high. I tried to pick only the top part of the plant, but sometimes the root came out. I put what I collected into a plastic bag and took it home.

At home, I had to rinse them because of the dirt clinging to the roots. So I put on rubber gloves and pulled off the root part. Then I rinsed what remained and chopped it up.

I have a bunch of squash soup that I made. It's very bland. I usually steam up some vegetables or heat up some other leftovers and add it to the soup. Today I added zucchini, yellow pepper and the nettles, and topped it with feta cheese.

It tasted fine. I couldn't tell you what the nettles taste like. They just taste like greens. They don't sting once they are cooked. Maybe next time I will try them as a side dish.

It's a lot of work, but they're weeds anyway, so why not? It was fun.