Give Your Body A Boost With Powerful Spring Herbs

Vegetable Juice

Cannot miss. This combination of vegetable juices will pour new energy into the veins, and it is also a feast for the eyes: orange for carrots, red for beetroot, and green for leaves and cucumber. You can drink the juices one at a time, but in combination they work wonders. Remember a teaspoon of olive oil, because the vitamin A of carrots is fat soluble. Thanks to beetroot, not only does the colour become pleasant, but mainly it slightly sweetens the final juice.

Ratio: 1 carrot, 1 medium beetroot, half a cucumber, and two handfuls of green salad of your choice (e.g. Spinach, lettuce, rocket salad) / per person. You will need a juicer for this recipe.

Spring herbs are very powerful and are often used for cooking as tea, pesto, poultry stuffing, salad, or as a replacement for spinach. There is just no end to where your imagination can take you.

Dandelion Pesto

350g washed and cleaned dandelion leaves

250ml olive oil or as you require

4 cloves garlic

6 tablespoons pine nuts (it is also possible to use blanched almonds)

salt

70g Parmesan

Process in a food processor until achieving the right pesto consistency. You can use it on pasta or gnocchi. 

Daisy soup (Bellis perennis)

Daisies are valuable for vitamin C, minerals, flavonoids, and others. Not only can they be used in many dishes, they also nicely decorate the prepared food.

1 l of broth

2 shallots

1 handful of mushrooms (fresh, dried, or frozen)

1 handful of daisy flowers

3 eggs

oil

chive

salt

cumin

pepper

semolina for thickening the soup a little

First fry cumin in a bit of oil to free up the aroma (in this step you can also add mushrooms, if they are fresh or frozen). Then add broth, dried mushrooms and cook them soft. The next step is to thicken the soup by adding the semolina and cook it another 10 minutes. Only after that add daisy flowers. Season with salt and pepper. Eggs are prepared separately with onion, put on a plate, and the soup is poured over them.

Nettles might not have the right reputation because their insidious stinging hairs cause an uncomfortable burning feeling. But…

Nettle instead of spinach

bunch of nettle

3 garlic

salt

pepper

oil

2 onions

Clean and wash nettle, use only the leaves (in the spring there are small leaves and therefore don’t neeed to be cut). Scald nettles with hot water and set them aside. Meanwhile fry onion with garlic and add to the prepared nettle „spinach“. Season with salt and pepper and cook for a while. It goes well with grilled meat, like chicken and home made large potato chips, but you can use it the way you like with regular spinach.

Nettle tea as part of a cleansing treatment

Especially in the spring the herb has lots of power, and it is used for treatment with a tea prepared from nettle. The tea is prepared fresh, with 2 spoons of small leaves. Pour hot water and leave 15 minutes covered to brew. It is recommended to drink two cups a day for about 2 – 3 weeks. It shouldn’t be used longer than that.

Tip: You can also use fresh nettle externally as a form of hair infusion – most suitable for hair with tendencies to get oily.

Blanch a bunch of nettle with a litre of hot water, let them infuse for 15 minutes in a covered container. After that drain and also let cool to a temperature that is comfortable to your hand – remember it will be poured on your head, where the nerves are more sensitive than on your hand and therefore will feel warmer. First use shampoo to wash your hair and thoroughly flush with water. Then using a small vessel pour a small amount of the infusion at a time on your hair and massage the scalp gently. After using all of it, dry your hair and you will immediately see a difference.

Photos: Martina Advaney
Title Photo: Shutterstock

Support us!

All your donations will be used to pay the magazine’s journalists and to support the ongoing costs of maintaining the site.