Recently, I spent a morning with Leonie from Brushtail Bush foods. A Boolarra farm growing and suppling native Australian herbs to restaurants and wholesales, fresh and dried.

Walking around her property, which she farms with her partner Terry, there are rambling paddocks of Strawberry gum, native thyme, beds of rive mint and pepper berry. Living outside of town, Leonie and Terry live largely off what they produce and grow around them.

On this day, Leonie shared her recipe for yogurt bread with stinging nettle.

Stinging nettles, Urtica dioica, have stinging hairs on them called trichomes, which will irritate your skin if you touch them. I know I still have an itchy finger from this morning. You need to wear gloves when handling them and soak the stems in a bowl of boiling water before use. The boil water removing the stinging chemicals from the plant.

The soaking liquid can be used as a tea with honey. Leonie uses it in a hot bath. It is said to be useful for inflammation or skin ailments. Stinging nettles are known as the “cure-all” weed.

Yogurt bread with stinging nettle

Ingredients

500 g of self-raising flour

one teaspoon of salt

500g of Greek yogurt

extra flour for dusting

one bunch of Stan needles

Use gloves when handling because if you don’t, you will get stung.

1. Remove the leaves from stinging nettle and soak them in a bowl of boiling water for a few minutes. Strain then chop finely
2. Combine flour, salt, and yogurt with blanch stinging nettles. Mix to form a dough.
3. Turn out on a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth. Divide dough into approximately 10 balls. Roll each ball of dough into a flat into a 1 cm thick disk.
4. Placed on a tray cover with a damp tea towel to stop them from drying out.
5. Heat a lightly greased griddle pan (or you can use a sandwich press) and cook until golden and risen.

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