Around the same time that I planted my spinach crop for the garden, the nettles began to poke their little heads from the undergrowth. A wise forager told me that nettles can be an easier, tastier, and healthier alternative to spinach. So I thought, why not try out that theory. Some of my favourite pasta dishes are heavy with spinach so I figured I would do a direct comparison for these dishes.
So what is the problem with spinach I hear you ask? Nothing really, other than it costs money. However, doing a cost analysis showed that the price of me harvesting the nettles required for my meal at minimum wage is still more than a bag of spinach at Aldi. So using nettles instead of spinach isn’t exactly a money saving enterprise. The other thing with spinach is that it can become all gross, slimy, and smelly in the bag if you don’t use it fast enough. However, if nettles were pre-picked and packaged, they would likely suffer the same fate. Similarly, if I picked the spinach fresh from my garden, it would likely be fresh, crisp, and delicious.
Therefore, the only benefit I can see from using nettles is the space saving. As someone who lives in a nice house with a small garden and aspires to grow as much of their own food as possible at some undetermined point in the future, nettles seems like a valuable resource when there is limited growing room available. Why waste space growing spinach when a remarkably similar alternative grows free and unwanted throughout most of the UK? As much as I would love to live in a farmhouse with acres of land and outbuildings to set up my self-proficient life, that just isn’t going to happen is it. Unless I win on one of the two allotted scratch cards I give myself each month.
The foraging
This part was pretty easy, but was a tad more lethal than picking spinach due to those evil and stinging hairs. I wore my gardening gloves (specially fashioned for the tiny-handed among us) which have rubber palms, but a knitted fabric for the remaining coverage. Although I pinched the nettle to pick the top leaves, on several occasions I still got stung through my gloves! On our foraging course, the head forager assured us that he didn’t even feel the sting when picking nettles, boldly diving deep into the undergrowth and plucking them from the depths without so much as a whimper. For the inexperienced picker like myself, the nettles continue to win the battle.
The prep
Once the plants had been conquered, I needed to make them safe to eat. This is where I will do things a little differently next time. Information I found online said that nettles need to be blanched in order to make them safe to eat. Cooking nettles neutralises the stinging compounds and immobilises them, making sure you don’t get a rash all over the inside of your mouth. That would not be pleasant at all. To blanch something means to submerge it in hot water briefly before then running cold water over it to stop the cooking process. Being the paranoid creature that I am, I was frightened that I would not cook them enough which naturally meant I cooked them for far longer than was needed! In turn, this created some very limp and sad looking leaves which I just decided to clump together, squeeze the water out of, and chop up to be dispersed throughout the dish.
I also opted not to pick off each leaf individually, mainly because I could not be bothered. For the second batch of nettles that I actually did blanch properly, this meant that the nettles were in large clumps rather than dispersed evenly throughout the meal. I would try to take one bite of pasta with just one or 2 nettles, but the whole clump ended up being brought up by the fork. Lesson for the future: just don’t be so lazy.
Red pesto pasta
Made from the simple ingredients of mushrooms and spinach with a red pesto sauce, this is easily one of my favourite meals! These were the nettles that I over blanched and ended needing to squeeze together and chop up very small. That did make the entire sauce a rather grainy green and was certainly less appetising than the spinach(my terrible photography aside). However, when it came to the actual experience of eating, neither were notably worse or better. I would definitely use nettles for this recipe again, perhaps blanching the nettles for less time, or even adding the leaves directly into the pan at the end; that would ideally cook the nettles and keep them mostly intact to create a different texture.
Creamy mushroom pasta
This is another pasta recipe that is in my regular rotation. I got it from the vegan food blogger/YouTuber Pick Up Limes. Appearance wise, I definitely prefer the nettles for this dish. The leaves hold a little more structure and stiffness, whilst the spinach leaves drape rather sadly and pathetically over the pasta shapes, clinging to the penne like a wet towel.
The verdict
Nutrition
In terms of the nutritional benefits, The Wild Foodie makes the valuable point that both nettles and spinach are nutritionally dense and healthy foods in different ways:
“Stinging nettles generally have a higher protein content compared to spinach, making them a valuable plant-based protein source. Nettles also contain more iron and potassium compared to spinach. However, spinach typically contains higher levels of vitamin A and folate. It is also known for its higher concentration of lutein and zeaxanthin, which are beneficial for eye health. Which plant wins nutritionally? Who knows..”
Therefore, on the side of nutrition, it depends what you need or what you feel you are lacking in as both are healthy and nutritious. I can’t say I felt more or less “nutritionally complete” after either leaf.
Taste
I didn’t really notice that much difference between the taste of nettles or spinach. This might be because both are actually relatively tasteless when they are up against the much bolder flavours of pesto or mushroom broth. To do a fair comparison, I would probably need to eat them both in their raw form. Whilst you can eat nettles safely by screwing them up and chewing quickly to break all the little needles, there remains an element of danger for the inexperienced forager like myself.
Texture
This another matter. Again, I would say neither are better and it depends what you like from your cooked leaves. Spinach becomes very limp and sad very quickly, but this also comes with a very easily digested mouthful. Little chewing is required and, to be honest, you probably would barely realise the spinach is there. Nettles on the other hand were a little tougher and chewier when left in their leaf form. When I blanched them, squeezed the water out, and simply sliced them up into small pieces to distribute evenly throughout the sauce, there was little difference to spinach, but I think I prefer the leaves having a little more form. Therefore, nettles win for me on this point due to being able to achieve either consistency with relative ease.
Finally there is a decisive scorer: 1:0 to nettles.
Effort of acquisition
There is no doubt that this goes to spinach in my current circumstances. I’m at the supermarket anyway and the seconds it takes to locate and select my spinach is significantly faster than the many minutes it takes to find a nettle patch and select the best leaves for the job. Even if I had my dream homestead and could grow all my food in the garden, I wouldn’t want to place a patch of nettles in my garden, so would equally have to walk or drive to the appropriately stocked spot.
Now that my spinach is also growing in my garden, I am also finding that quite a good crop is being produced in actually not that much space. I did plant them all quite close together, and the variety that i have planted (quite randomly selected) is already growing more than I need. This does rather put my initial space saving hypothesis to shame.
Spinach takes one back for an even 1:1.
Fun
This obviously goes to nettles. The danger element. The primal joy of foraging and searching for your own food. There’s not really any competition or justification needed here in my opinion. However, if you were doing this on a regular basis every time you had a meal that you would normally put spinach in a meal, I imagine it would become more of a chore rather than something you are excited to do. But for the purposes of a newbie exploring this, nettles come out the winner.
Nettles race back into the lead for a 2:1 to nettles.
Versatility
This is an interesting comparison as I have only really explored both leaves in their cooked form. Spinach can obviously be used as an uncooked leaf as part of a salad which is not an option for nettles. The leader of the foraging course I went on said you can use nettles to make syrup, or dry them out and turn them into a nutritious powder to add to meals. I’m sure you could dry spinach out to make a nutritious powder too, but it doesn’t have that fun element. I feel like I have experience exploring the different things you can do with spinach and not with nettles. You could argue that I haven’t given nettles a fair shot in this category. For now, the added versatility of being able to use spinach raw as well as in a cooked meal gives it the edge. Perhaps once I’ve tried some other nettle recipes, I’ll revisit this battle.
For now, spinach is back in the game, taking the score to an even 2:2.
Conclusion
I still remain on the fence about this to be honest. I suspect that the case is there are certain things nettles are best for, and that there are certain things spinach is best for. And you just have to experiment to find what works best for you. When it comes to adding greens at the end of a meal which are being cooked, like to a curry or a pasta, I’m going to stick with spinach because it’s just easier, and I’m lazy.
I still have lots of ideas for ways I can experiment with nettles or things that I can make in the kitchen. I plan to make a recipe for Jeremy Clarkson’s £10 nettle soup, dry nettles into a nutritious powder, make nettle syrup, and try out some other nettle recipes; there certainly seem to be plenty online. Unfortunately, it’s taken me so long to actually write this post (I did this experiment a couple of months ago) that the nettles have gone to flower and can no longer be harvested. These experiments will have to wait until next year.