Silvia's Spring Nettle Soup for Sharing

March 2016

As promised, this issue features recipes from the Ro(Maine)ian mothers. This one comes from Silvia, who lives in Romania.

"What would you like to read about in Karootza Magazine?", I asked Silvia.

Silvia said she’s happy when she’s giving away things. “This is part of keeping your spirit healthy," she said. This is for everyone, regardless of age. This is what I want to read about, what I care about.”

“If you are at peace with your spirit you are happy. This doesn’t relate to age. You can do it easily. If you walk on the street, buy some bread, a banana, a can of fish, and give it to the first elderly or poorer person you see. Just give it to someone. When you see the joy of someone who is receiving something, you are even happier. It’s like a therapy. Americans, Germans, Romanians, all nationalities have the same thought and spirit. People should offer more. The biggest joy is giving. You should promote the goodness of people. Kindness.”

Silvia recently made this soup for some neighborhood children who helped her with her garden. They ate every drop of the soup.

This cleansing spring soup contains three special ingredients from Romania: stinging nettles-which grow wild in springtime; borsh, a fermented liquid used often in soups; and stevie, a green similar to kale, which grows wild and is cultivated. Nettles are high in vitamin A, calcium and magnesium. It is important to use young nettles, as they get sour when they are older.

Directions:

1. Peel the potatoes, and chop each in four.
2. Chop onions, carrot, parsley root, and green pepper into small cubes.
3. Boil everything in 3 fingers of water above vegetables.
4. Once vegetables are boiling, turn heat down to a slow simmer. Pour borsh in the pot, as much as you want based on how sour you want it to be.
Borsh is a fermented liquid made from wheat bran, used to add a flavorful sour zing to soups. It can be bought at farmer’s markets and grocery stores in Romania. One traditional way to make it is to boil wheat bran with visine (sour cherry) branches in hot water, and leave for three days to ferment. The liquid extracted from this is borsh.
5. While the vegetables are cooking in the soup, clean the urzica (nettles). Look at each urzica. Shake each nettle against your finger, so it doesn’t have dirt in it.
6. Clean and prepare the stevie (similar to kale). There should be relatively more stevie than urzica. Chop it as big as you want.
7. Put the prepared urzica and stevie in the soup.
8. Put a spoon of bullion (canned tomato paste) in at the end; or, if you don’t have that, two chopped tomatoes when the borsh is simmering.
9. Cook on medium heat for up to an hour.
10. Add olive oil or salt to taste.

Suggestions: If the following ingredients are not available in your area, try these substitutions:

• Urzica (young stinging nettles): spinach, dandelion greens
• Stevie: kale, swiss chard
• Borsh: apple cider vinegar

Pofta buna! (In Romanian, this means: Enjoy your meal!)