A vibrant Spring tonic, fresh Nettle Juice is full of minerals, vitamins and phytonutrients. With just a few ingredients thrown in the blender your super-nutritious green juice is ready in minutes!
How are you tending to the emerging story of your life?- Carol Hegedus
Nettle, how I love thee! This amazing plant is powerfully nutritious. Full of minerals, vitamins and phytonutrients, it fortifies the body in a myriad of ways. Nettle begins to emerge in the early spring. The first shoots are what are best to harvest. Many farmer’s markets and natural markets now offer fresh-picked nettle. Or find a nettle patch and forage from the wild.
What does nettle juice taste like?
This tonic is simple and delicious. The apple, lemon and ginger accent this green drink. Nettle has a mild flavor similar to spinach. Fresh apple adds sweetness, fresh lemon brightens it up, and fresh ginger gives a balancing zing. And the green color is quite glorious, like drinking springtime herself! It makes me so happy!
Nettle is one of my mainstay vitamin tonics. Mostly I take it in tea form using the dried leaves.
But in the springtime, I fortify with fresh nettle and I seriously get a supercharged full-body alive feeling!
Why does Nettle Sting?
The thing about a nettle stinger: It is a very delicate tube containing a liquid acid that reacts with your skin when it brushes against you. If the nettle is frozen, fermented, dried, crushed or cooked or even quickly dipped in hot water (this last is how many NW coastal First Nations ate them), all those tubes become non-effective.
The nettle sting is actually used as therapy for arthritis and nerve damage by intentionally brushing the plant over the skin! Personally, I have come to question the sensation on my skin… is it pain or just sensation? To me it feels like electricity buzzing and tingling my skin. That said please take precautions when picking. Some people react more strongly to the sting than others and some nettle is much more potent. Take precautions! Use gloves and tongs. Check this out for tips on how to pick without getting stung.
How to make nettle Juice!
Rather than using a juicer, use a blender!
Simply blend and strain!
Water, ginger, apple, lemon and nettle leaves blend for a full minute on high. Then blend in ice cubes.
Strain with a fine-mesh strainer.
Benefits of nettle juice:
- full of minerals, nutrients and anti-oxidents
- restores health over time with regular use
- strengthens bones, hair, teeth, fingernails
- restores depleted energy
- supports liver and kidney in detoxifying
- builds iron in the blood
- restores mineral depletion helping with cramping
- anti-inflammatory, anti-tumor, and antiviral effects
Just to name a few!
Pour into two glasses and serve immediatly.
More nettle recipes you may like:
- Nettle Soup Recipe
- Spring Pasta with Nettle Pesto Sauce!
- STEAMED NETTLES w/ TOASTED SESAME SEEDS & CHIVE BLOSSOMS
More tonics and diy remedies:
- Sage Oxymel (a respiratory tonic)
- Ayurvedic Detox Turmeric Tea (a daily drink)
- Celery Juice Recipe & Top 10 Celery Benefits
- Wonder Balm! (Shea Butter Body Balm)
- Turmeric Tonic!
- Jamu Juice (Bali’s anti-inflammatory Juice)
- Moroccan Sore Throat Tea
Refreshing Nettle Super Tonic
- Prep Time: 10
- Total Time: 10 minutes
- Yield: 3 cups (2 servings) 1x
- Category: juice, tonic,
- Method: blended
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Vegan
Description
A vibrant Spring tonic, fresh nettle juice is full of minerals, vitamins and phytonutrients. With a few simple ingredients thrown in the blender your super-nutritious green juice is ready in minutes!
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cup loosely packed, stinging nettle leaves (a little stem is ok, it will be strained out)
- 3 cups pure water
- 1/2 cup chopped apple, about 1/2 of a medium apple
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 3–4 ginger slices
- pinch of sea salt , (I like pink Himalayan sea salt)
Instructions
- Fill blender with the water. Add chopped apple, lemon juice, slices of ginger, and salt.
- With tongs or gloves carefully add nettle to the blender. Blend on high for 1 minute, or until nettle is completely liquified.
- Blend in ice cubes, if desired.
- Pour through a fine sieve strainer.
- Best consumed right away.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 2
- Calories: 50
- Sugar: 3.9 g
- Sodium: 17.8 mg
- Fat: 0.2 g
- Saturated Fat: 0 g
- Carbohydrates: 11 g
- Fiber: 5.5 g
- Protein: 2 g
- Cholesterol: 0 mg
Thankyou so much for this recipe Sylvia. I found fresh nettle at the farmers market this morning here in Perth, Western Australia and the juice is fresh and delicious.
I’ll be trying the nettle soup recipe for lunch x
Great to hear Angela!
Thanks for this recipe— it’s really delicious and refreshing.
Given all the health benefits you list for this—made me wonder if you know of any drinks that can help lower blood sugar.
TIA 🙂
So happy you enjoyed this Leslie!
I tried this recipe and also added turmeric, orange juice and more apple. It was refreshing! Thank you for the recipe!
Great additions! Glad you gave it a go!
I’ve long made fresh nettle smoothies and consumed them without straining, and they are quite good! I usually blend in a frozen banana and avocado. But I am going to try this too. It sounds quite refreshing! Could one strain the mixture before blending in the ice cubes, to make it more icy?
Thanks for this recipe!
Absolutely!
I’m excited to try this recipe! I’m surprised that the recipe uses fresh nettle without blanching. Does the blender remove the sting? Or, does the fine sieve strainer? Thank you in advance for whatever info you can share on how that works.
Hi Angela, Using the fresh nettle is definitely for the adventurous! The acid in the plant becomes neutralized when crushed. Interestingly the juice in the stem of the nettle plant is an antidote to the sting. Hope you give it a try!
Hi Tonia, I tried it and loved it! The flavor was crisp, fresh … a taste of spring for me in the mid-Atlantic. I’m fortunate to have nettle in my own yard, so I’m very pleased to have another way to use this wonderful plant. Thank you for the additional explanation and encouragement.
Yay! I’m so happy to hear this! I love that you look at the nettle in your yard with good fortune. 😍
I love how passionate you are about hunting and gathering herbs and things–especially Nettle! This sounds delicious as well as beneficial. Now I must go and find some Nettle!
Would it be alright if dried nettle is used in this recipe?
It just wouldn’t be the same fresh bright flavor. I suppose you could try making tea first and then do the blend.
Silly question…am not a hunter – where would I find fresh nettle leaves to buy?
Often you can find them at farmers markets or natural food coops. 🙂