Nettle Bread Recipe ~ An Ancient Loaf from the Hedgerow
This nettle bread recipe is a great sandwich bread, makes excellent toast and is wonderful with butter and wild garlic or cheese.
We love foraging wild food in the spring, especially for nettles. If you’ve made nettle soup you’ll already know how fun it can be to use wild and free food.
You might have seen my other recipes for nettle hummus, nettle and mint lemonade, and wild herb scrambled eggs. This nettle bread is a simple sandwich bread you can eat fresh or toast, and it’s especially nice with cheese.
You can make a speckled bread like we did here, with the nettles roughly chopped through the dough, or a vivid green bread using pureed nettles blended into the water.
A Brief History of Nettles as Food
Stinging nettles (Urtica dioica) have been eaten across Europe for thousands of years. They appear in Iron Age cookpots, medieval manuscripts, and Scottish Highland recipes for “nettle kail.” For centuries they were one of the first fresh greens available after winter, eaten boiled, in soups, in cheeses, and baked into breads. And they are still popular today for their culinary use and medicinal use.
Nutritionally they’re remarkable, rich in iron, calcium, vitamins A and C, and protein. An easy way to enjoy their benefits is by drinking simple nettle tea, or throwing a handful into any green soups. They were also used to make linen-like cloth before flax became widely available, which I plan to try later this month (I want to make nettle cordage).
When to Harvest for Bread
Use the young top leaves, the top 4-6 leaves of each stem. Harvest in April and May before the plant flowers, when the leaves are tender and most nutritious. After flowering, the tall plants become tough and develop compounds that can irritate the kidneys if eaten in large quantities. Always wear gloves to harvest. You can find them growing on nutrient-rich soils like along the chicken coop or in open forests.
Foraging and Preparing Your Nettles
- Harvest the tops: Wearing rubber gloves, pinch off the top 4–6 leaves of young nettle plants. You’ll need a good colander-full of fresh leaves. They reduce dramatically when blanched. Avoid plants growing beside roads or in heavily treated fields.
- Blanch to remove the sting: Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil. Drop the nettles in the boiling water and blanch for 60–90 seconds until wilted and bright green. Immediately transfer to a bowl of ice cold water to stop cooking and preserve the colour.
- Squeeze and chop: Squeeze out as much excess water as possible. I keep the nettle water to use in the bread recipe. Then chop the nettles roughly. You need approximately 150g of blanched, squeezed nettle for this recipe. You can now handle them with bare hands. Blanching completely neutralises the sting.
Ok, let’s get into the medieval kitchen. 🙂 Well, I suppose they couldn’t just go to the shop and buy instant dried yeast in the middle ages.
How to Make Nettle Bread
This is a simple white sandwich loaf enriched with nettles. It has a soft crumb and a slight earthiness. It makes excellent toast and is wonderful with butter and wild garlic.
For the Bread
- 500g strong white bread flour (I used half wholemeal spelt and half white all purpose flour)
- 7g fast-action dried yeast
- 1½ tsp salt
- 1 tsp sugar
- 300ml warm water (I used the nettle water)
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 150g blanched nettles, chopped
Equipment
- Large mixing bowl
- loaf tin
- Dough scraper (helpful if you have it)
- Clean tea towel
Mix the dough: Combine the dry ingredients (flour, yeast, a couple pinches of salt and sugar) in a large bowl. Add the warm water and olive oil and mix to a shaggy dough. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 8–10 minutes until smooth and elastic. The dough will be slightly sticky. Resist adding too much extra flour.
Add the nettles: Flatten the soft dough, spread the chopped nettles across it, then fold and knead for another 2–3 minutes until the nettles are evenly distributed throughout.
First rise: Shape the dough into a ball, place dough in a lightly oiled bowl, cover with a damp tea towel and leave to rise in a warm place for 1–1½ hours, until doubled in size.
Shape and second rise: Knock back the ball of dough gently, shape into a log and place in a greased 900g loaf tin. Cover and leave to rise again for 45–60 minutes, until the top of the dough crowns above the tin.
Bake: Preheat the oven to 220°C (200°C fan). Bake for 25–30 minutes until the loaf is golden brown and sounds hollow when tapped on the base. Cool on a wire rack for at least 20 minutes before cutting.
Tips & Variations
- Add a handful of grated cheddar and a pinch of nutmeg to the dough for a richer, more savoury loaf
- Swap half the white flour for wholemeal for a denser, nuttier result
- The blanched nettles freeze well. Make a big batch and freeze in 150g portions for baking later in the year
- Nettle bread makes brilliant toast and is particularly good with the wild garlic butter
Flavour Variations
This loaf works as a base recipe you can take in different directions. All additions go in at the same stage, folded through the dough just before the first rise.
Parmesan Cheese and Black Pepper
A focused, elegant combination that lets the nettle flavour come through clearly.
- 60g finely grated parmesan
- 1½ tsp coarsely cracked black pepper
Walnut, Parmesan and Pepper
The walnut version with parmesan and pepper added — a sophisticated loaf that’s wonderful with a cheese board or a bowl of soup.
- 80g walnuts, lightly toasted
- 40g finely grated parmesan
- 1 tsp cracked black pepper
Cheddar and Nutmeg
A more familiar flavour combination. The kind of loaf that disappears quickly. Mature cheddar works best; a mild one gets lost against the nettles.
- 80g mature cheddar, grated
- ¼ tsp freshly grated nutmeg
Nettle and Wild Garlic
The most seasonal variation. Both plants are at their peak at the same time in May. Puree the wild garlic leaves in with the nettles and water for a deeply green, garlicky loaf.
- 150g nettles (as per base recipe)
- 30g wild garlic leaves, blended in with the nettles
A Note on Cheese in Bread
Finely grated cheese incorporates more evenly than coarsely grated and melts into the crumb rather than forming pockets. For parmesan especially, the finer the grate the better. A microplane gives the best result. Add cheese at room temperature rather than cold from the fridge, which can slow the second rise slightly.
It’s fascination what you can do with a couple handfuls of hedge nettles. And isn’t it great to be able to make something useful like bread from a plant most people consider a nuisance?
