Nässelsoppa med ägg

The story

Nässelsoppa is the green soup Swedes make from the first stinging nettles of spring, while the shoots are short and tender. Once a nettle grows to about a foot tall it turns fibrous and tough, so cooks pick early; Semi-Swede, a blog by a writer who moved to Sweden in 2008, describes her Swedish mother-in-law gathering nettles every spring in the woods behind her house. Falstaff magazine counts nettles among the wild greens that go straight from forest to kitchen in the Nordic spring and notes that nässelsoppa is often served with boiled eggs and a little crème fraîche. Those eggs tie the soup to the Easter season. Church of Sweden parish pages explain that eggs were once avoided during the forty days of Lent, while hens began laying again in spring, so Easter became an egg feast. Nettle soup has no part in any church rite, but Semi-Swede suggests it as a way to use up Easter eggs; Easter falls on March 28 in 2027, and in a late spring the nettles may not be up yet. Blanching removes the sting completely. Serve the soup as a first course before fish or lamb, with crispbread and butter on the side.