Vegan Wild Garlic Nettle Strudel

   reading time: 4 min





Have you ever eaten wild stinging nettle? Yep, the one that leaves a prickly stinging on your skin when you brush against it. The good news is, however, that once you boil, bake, blend, or dehydrate it, it loses its sting.

Every spring I go on a wild nettle hunt to make this strudel recipe. It's hands down my favourite to eat during spring! It is inspired by the Greek spinach pie Spanakopita, which is typically made with chopped spinach, feta cheese, onions or scallions, egg, and puff pastry.

If you don't have any wild garlic at hand, you could also swap it for leek or even spinach, combined with two garlic cloves. Or add any spring greens you like, such as dandelion greens, plantain, goutweed, sticky weed, sorrel, or arugula.

VEGAN WILD GARLIC NETTLE STRUDEL

Preparation time: 60 minutes
Main ingredients: stinging nettle, wild garlic, puff pastry
difficulty level: easy
serves: 4
suitable for: vegan, lactose-free, sugar-free, yeast-free

Ingredients

Filling:
200g young nettle leaves
100g wild garlic leaves
1/2 cup brown mushrooms
1 white onion
1 tbsp sunflower oil or olive oil
salt and pepper, to taste
a pinch of nutmeg
200g tofu
25g cashews, soaked in hot water
1 tbsp nutritional yeast
juice of 1/4 lemon
1 tsp salt

also:
1 large sheet of puff pastry or phyllo pastry
plant-based milk for glazing

Instructions

First prepare the vegan "feta": Add your tofu, soaked cashews, nutritional yeast, lemon juice and salt to a food processor. Pulse and blend until your reach a sticky, not-yet-creamy, not-quite-chunky consistency.

For the strudel filling, thoroughly rinse nettle leaves and wild garlic leaves under running water. Bring some hot water to a boil and briefly blanch the wild garlic and nettles. Strain. Finely chop the nettle and wild garlic. Peel and chop an onion. Fry in a saucepan or pan, then add cubes mushrooms. Once they have shrunk, add the nettles and wild garlic, nutmeg, salt and pepper, and sauté for about 5 minutes. Add your vegan "feta" to the mix, and season to your liking.

Roll out the puff pastry. Evenly spread with your herb mixture. Roll into a strudel and brush with some plant-based milk. Preheat oven to 220 °C (430 °F) and bake for 35-45 minutes until golden brown.

Carefully slice the strudel in thick slices, arrange on plates and enjoy while still warm.


General Foraging Guidelines:
  • You should be 100 % certain you are identifying the correct plant. If you do not know what it is, DO NOT eat it! Do not pick if you're in doubt!

  • Don't harvest from contaminated areas such as busy roadsides, near industrial facilities, where dogs pee, along the edges of agricultural fields, old landfill sites etc.

  • Be mindful & harvest sustainably. Only pick from areas that have a plentiful supply, and never more than 1/4 of a plant, ideally only about 5 %.

  • Leave the harvesting area litter-free.

     


Maisy

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