Some of my favourite things to bring to my culinary frolics at this time of year are teas and infusions from freshly growing shoots. There’s just something that feels deeply nourishing to me about stepping just yards from the kitchen door and doing a bit of weeding (well, that’s how I pretend I’m helping Nik in the garden) before brewing up a delicate tonic, full of the promise of spring and a cocktail of nutrients that nature deems appropriate to make available just now.
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​The term ‘weed’ in my book, simply means ‘plants growing in inconvenient places’ but I did actually go a little further afield (maybe ten minutes up the lane) today to find a crop of dandelions which inconveniently weren’t growing in the garden!  I think that counts as a proper forage! I also grabbed a handful of cleavers to add to the pot! (cleavers is also called ‘sticky weed’ and sometimes ‘sticky willy’ but I avoid the latter term myself, ahem.) Dandelions are famous for having a diuretic effect and cleavers are also traditionally utilised to benefit the urinary tract and renal system so this blend is a real flush-you-out spring cleaning detox of a tea. Here’s how I make it:

You want to pick your flowers and greens as soon before making the tea as you can. Once they wilt, they lose a lot of life and flavour, as well as actually starting to look like weeds, or worse, a compost heap! Give them a gentle wash and carefully relocate the mini-beasts that emerge as soggy refugees from your crop. Remove the flower heads from the stems. The leaves can be lovely in salad (note to self for a future post!) but I’ve never found a pleasant use for the thick hollow stems that seep sticky, white and very bitter sap. You really just want the flowers! Get some water boiling (I’ve been using a lovely old copper pot which I’d like to think adds a bit of extra micro nutrient to the brew!) and then reduce it to a simmer. Add the flowers and cleavers, but you really don’t want to boil them. For this tea, I added the juice of half a lime, but note, if you are also using a copper pot, best to add that the tea pot and then pour the tea onto the lime juice. Acidic things in copper pots are liable to result in a little bit too much extra copper in your diet! You could also sweeten it. When I was living in the Taraloka community, we often had organic apple juice concentrate in the ‘fridge and a little of that worked very well with the light flavours but I’d also consider using agave syrup (date would be too heavy) and if you’re not strictly vegan, there’s always the classic spoon of (preferably local) honey!

So, I should like to correct my earlier statement, I’m not going to be sharing seasonal recipes in the formal, traditional sense. I shall be sharing visual guides to the (mostly) seasonal, vegan food I’m preparing for us to eat. Think of them as starting points and, should you feel you need it, feel free to then search out a more formal guide to quantities and cooking times! I do believe cooking should be an intuitive art, a creative act, a magical incantation, an alchemical method for transforming matter via the hopefully joyful activity of eating and I do hope you’ll find some inspiration and permission to begin flinging things about your own kitchen! These recipes will be plant based and will avoid processed food; that’s not to say I don’t occasionally indulge in a bit of vegan ‘cheese’ or a random veggie sausage but I do think preparing meals with minimally processed ingredients is by far the most healthful for person and planet. Fortunately, I also live with an experienced organic grower, which means that a lot of what I use will be home grown or foraged. Of course, if you want to try cooking something I’ve shared, you may need to make some adjustments!

Carefully wash a basketful of nettles (yes, we’re in an organic garden and there’s not much local traffic but there’s probably some agricultural runoff from the local fields and I know the dog’s not the only one to take a leak in random places). Please don’t ask me how big the basket was. Here’s a picture. Sting yourself a bit as you cut the leaves off the stems and then remember the gloves. Look in the ‘fridge and fish out some veg that looks like it would be happier in a stock than where it’s currently languishing. Roughly that sort thing, vague amounts will do, potatoes are a really good addition. I’ve recently discovered that potatoes are a much nicer addition to soup if you peel and boil them separately first. Apparently this helps stop them overpowering the other flavours and improves the texture. I’ve only tried it this once but I’m convinced. Having said that, if you’re short on time you could happily chuck them in with all the other veg, I doubt anyone would really notice. Chop the other veg and sauté it in some tasty fat (I used sunflower oil because it’s cheaper but I’d have liked to use rapeseed or olive) to get all the flavours going. Fat carries flavour, so for sure you can cook things in water if you need to have a very low fat diet for some reason... but I’m sorry to say it almost certainly won’t be as fully flavoured as it’s fatty cousin. 

This is a good time also to add black pepper, salt if you want it, herbs, culinary seeds, that sort of thing. All their flavours get in on the party too. Add some vegetable stock and let it do its thing for a bit whilst you blanch the nettles. That’s a posh word for ‘pour boiling water on them’. Depending on what you’re cooking, you might want to do that in a sieve but I kept them in their water this time so as to not lose any of their flavour or goodness down the sink! Hooray! No need to remember the gloves any longer, your nettles are now not stingy! Add them to the mix, complete with their lovely dark greeny-blue water and then have a mild panic about the lack of protein. Resort to the freezer and chuck in a handful (maybe a cupful?) of frozen peas with a sigh of relief. Cook it a little until they are defrosted and move on to the fun bit; time to release the stick blender! Up to you how smooth you like it. I tend to take this one pretty smooth but no reason not to keep it a bit chunky for character. It’ll hang out there for a little while but avoid letting it boil if you can. Flavours (and probably nutrients) tend to do better below 100 degrees in my experience. ​