🌿 Nettle soup with rice, potatoes, and parmesan
A rustic and healthy recipe from Valchiavenna, perfect for detoxing and warming up on cooler days 🥣🧄🧀
Introduction
The nettle soup is one of the most representative dishes of mountain peasant cuisine, made with simple and natural ingredients.
The nettles, often considered just weeds, are actually very rich in nutritional properties: purifying, remineralizing, and rich in iron.
This recipe, taken from the book “Once upon a time... the melonz”, combines nettles with meat broth, potatoes, carrots, and rice, with a generous sprinkle of grated parmesan. The result is a warm, comforting, and wholesome soup to enjoy in any season. 🥰
📝 Ingredients (for 4 people)
- Meat broth to taste
- 1 potato
- 1 carrot
- 1 piece of mountain butter
- 160 g of rice
- 200 g of young and fresh nettle tops
- 50 g of grated parmesan
👩🍳 Step-by-step preparation
- Bring the meat broth to a boil in a large pot.
- Add the carrot and potato, peeled and cut into small pieces, along with a piece of mountain butter.
- After about 5 minutes, add the roughly chopped nettle tops (wear gloves during the cleaning!).
- Pour in the rice and cook for the indicated time (about 15–18 minutes), stirring occasionally.
- At the end of cooking, gently mash the potatoes and carrots with a fork directly into the soup.
- Serve hot, finishing each portion with a sprinkle of grated parmesan.
🥄 Tips
- You can substitute the meat broth with vegetable broth for a lighter or vegetarian version.
- Also great the next day, slightly reheated.
The image of the dishes is purely indicative and does not necessarily correspond exactly to the recipe
📚 Source: “Once upon a time... the melonz – From tradition to innovation. 149 recipes to rediscover the knowledge and flavors of Valchiavenna”
