A healing salad with NETTLES, BORAGE & LATHYRUS
Nettles, borage, stems from a plant in the Lathyrus family (which includes peas, and fava beans), and onion leaves combine to make this salad. Nettle is a ‘panacea’ plant that is both nutritious and therapeutic, with an amazing taste. Borage has the coolness of a cucumber, and its flowers are both beautiful and delicious. The “wild pea” is earthy and starchy.
Take a Sunday walk and enjoy all this on your plate.
And if you can’t find wild peas, you can completely change the flavor by using 1 bunch of arugula and a few spinach leaves.
All this is combined with a simple lemon sauce, with a teaspoon of pollen in it and olive oil. And we are ready to enjoy it!
Preparation
We wear plastic gloves to be able to pick, wash, and generally manage the nettle. We collect the tender tops, wash them well, and put them in a basin to scald with boiling water for 1 minute. We do the same with borage, but we scald the sprouts, with the buds we collected for about 5 minutes if they are not so tender. Depends on the time of the year we forage them.
Drain and press them both well so that they have no water. We finely chop the borage, leaving the nettle either as is or slightly chopped. From the “wild pea” (we’ll call it that to get along ) keep the tender shoots and flowers, if any, and wash them well by putting them on paper to dry. Finely chop the leaves of the green onions without the white part. Put all the ingredients in a container. Add salt, a little pepper, and some sauce, and mix well. When ready to serve, add the Borago flowers on top.
Add nettles to omelets, soups, legumes, pilafs, and, of course, in pies with greens.
They can also be enjoyed simply boiled with oil and lemon, or fresh, grated with a little salt and added to green salads.
