I am not the most dependable food blogger. I try to post recipes that might be useful for upcoming holidays and whatnot, but I succeed only half the time. However, every year I do manage to post a recipe to sooth, defeat or cure seasonal allergies. Seasonal Allergies are cruel. The weather finally becomes bearable, and your body turns on you, like it’s your fault that trees make pollen. It’s not right. Adding insult to injury is the fact that I have adverse reactions to almost every pharmaceutical. The fine print is written for me. I could pretend that I am somehow morally superior because I try to cure my allergies with food instead of drugs, but that is not really what is going on here. Food is my only hope.
This year, I started eating stinging nettles as soon as I could get my hands on them (which was about a month after my allergies started). I swear, My allergies can tell when the trees are even thinking about producing pollen. After a month of suffering, I bought nettles. I ate sautéed nettles. I ate nettle pesto. I ate chicken soup with nettles, ramps and eggs. I felt better. It’s a bold statement, I know, but I think that nettles cured my allergies!
Stracciatella is a delicious and simple Italian soup involving good chicken stock, eggs and greens. It was introduced to me on two separate occasions, by two different stunningly beautiful and talented puppeteers that I have had the great pleasure of working with. If you like puppets as well as soup recipes go look at Sophia Michahelles’ Processional Arts Workshop and Emily DeCola’s Puppet Kitchen. I make Stracciatella with homemade chicken broth, but Sophia made it when we were working out of town and had no time or space using “Better than Boullion,” and it was delicious. Emily and I ate lunch together once a week when were teaching and the Stracciatella that she liked to order had lots of garlic. I gather from looking at recipes on-line that garlic is not usual, but it should be. Since ramps (wild garlic) come into season at the same time as nettles, that is what I used!
This is a flexible soup. Regular garlic instead of ramps would work just fine. Spinach or whatever green you have would work in place of nettles. I don’t know if it will cure your allergies without the nettles, but a nice bowl of garlicky chicken broth with greens and eggs certainly won’t make you feel any worse.
STRACCIATELLA WITH RAMPS AND NETTLES
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 bunch of ramps, thoroughly washed, bulbs and stems minced, greens roughly chopped
- 4 cups homemade chicken broth
- 4 eggs
- 1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese
- 1 Tablespoon chopped parsley (or some other herb that you have)
- salt and pepper
- 1 bunch of stinging nettles
- Warm the olive oil in the bottom of a soup pot over medium heat. Add the minced bulbs and stems of the ramps and saute until they become soft and fragrant.
- Add the chicken broth and increase the heat. While the broth comes to a boil, prepare the eggs and nettles.
- Whisk together the eggs, parmesan and chopped parsley (or some other herb). Using rubber gloves ( or a plastic bag) rinse the nettles until they are clean.
- When the broth boils, slowly pour the egg mixture into the hot soup, swirling it so that the egg forms thin strands.
- Using rubber gloves (or a plastic bag) hold a stock of stinging nettles by the stem. Use kitchen scissors to snip the leaves into the soup pot. Repeat with all of the nettles.
- Add the ramp greens to the pot too and continue cooking until the nettles are soft and have lost their sting.
OTHER RECIPES TO COMBAT ALLERGIES…
Big Sis Little Dish 
Lovely recipe. I am fascinated by the idea of using nettles to relieve allergies. It totally makes sense but I never thought of it.
This year I ate nettles for the first time. I used them in a bunch of recipes over a few weeks. We are nearly 2 months into hayfever season & I have yet to have a single symptom. I stocked up on meds & haven’t used them yet. Wonder if it is the magic of nettles?
I believe that the nettles work as an allergy cure. I love that it is working for you as well! Yay for nettle magic!
I know. Who knew the stingy little monsters could be so amazing.
I don’t know for sure but normally by this time of year I have pretty bad allergies. I have been wondering why I don’t have them when everyone else is suffering as usual. Maybe this is the answer. I am going to recommend it to everyone I know with hayfever
Hi Erin,
We just made your soup with nettles, and it brought back lots of memories, as my grandmother made this for us every spring, and now we have a recipe for it! The old wise ones knew to eat nettles and dandelions in the Spring to cleanse our Livers ~ as a dirty Liver creates allergies! Simple as that.
A liver cleanse 1-2 x a year will totally remove allergies as well (see Andreas Moritz’s book;
” The Amazing Liver & Gall Bladder Flush,” which we did for Candida overgrowth, and I admit we were a bit nervous, but he gently walks you through it and we had a great, 100% painless, gentle and effective experience – – and it truly reduced our Candida!
Erin, I think its great that you’re using Nature to make balance in your body with your seasonal allergies!
You are definitely on the right tract as the allergy meds have many side effects ~ that can’t be a good.
Eating Dairy also creates and feeds Allergies, if you can’t give them up, at least eat org. “raw” milk dairy products and preferably org. soft cheeses: yogurt, keefir, cottage cheese, during allergy seasons.
In addition to consuming nettles for relief ~ there are wonderful inexpensive Homeopathic Remedies (available in big health food stores & online), for allergies that fit your exact symptoms.
That is the KEY with using Homeopathy: match your exact symptoms to a remedy and Voila! you’re home free! (Homeopathy is 100% natural, and is a wonderfully wise, Medicine that is a part of our countries 1800’s history, as it was here in America flourishing before the AMA kicked them out of the country and they went back to Europe where they have flourished with the wise European people ~ including the Royal family of Great Britain.
Here are 2 of the best self-care books on Homeopathy:
1). “Homeopathic Self-Care” by Robert & Judith Ullman, N.D.
2). “The Family Guide To Homeopathy” by Alain Horvileur, M.D.
3). ” Homeopathy For Infants & Children by Dana Ullman, N.D.
In addition, Ayurvedic medicine (7000 years old from India!) also offers natural remedies that truly work too.
See John Douillard do-yard) on his wonderful Ayurvedic Colorado based site: ” The Living Spa”
that offers tons! of truly helpful free archived articles on every health topic and he will even answer an inquiry! We love his inexpensive Vit D3 liquid, as it is potent and you actually feel happier on it!
(Vit. D3 a true, vital Hormone that each & every cell in our body has a receptor for, so obviously, we were meant to be outside a whole lot more than we are!
I had bad S.A.D. from lack of Vit. D3 here in Chi-town and now I sail through winters,
even this past Chi-berian frigid! winter we had, without a bit of blueness or lethargy!
Wishing you a lovely healthy Spring!
Trevor, Emily & Jess
P.S. Also, we appreciate your Puppetry background, as we are writing a Natural Children’s Television
Pilot, that is non-animated, set in “Camelot” time, using wonderful Puppetry instead.
Perhaps . . . our paths will cross in the future.
Wow! Emily this is a lot of useful information about allergy relief. Thank you for sharing. I crave dandelions this time of year. Maybe it is my liver speaking to me? I have had good luck with homeopathic medicine (to treat my digestion problems) in the past and I am very interested in Aruvedic medicine.
I have to admit that I find the notion of an official “cleanse” terrifying, since I become so very mean when I am hungry. Maybe if I did not work with people, or at least not children, who I might make cry!
Also, having been raised by a radically health conscious mum, I occasionally feel that teenage rebellion rising when I start to contemplate anything that drastically limits my diet. It’s silly I know. All and all I am very grateful that my mother fed me so much real food and so little junk, but still have a knee jerk reaction to order pie when faced with vegetable juices or sprouts.
I’d love to see you puppets sometime. I do not work in TV often, but who knows?
best wishes,
Erin
Hi Erin,
I do think our organs talk to us as we are intuitive beings, aren’t we. The healthier one is the stronger that tool comes through too!
I totally understand your reaction to being hungry and getting short with people. You’re not alone!
The great thing about this cleanse is that you gently prepare for it by eating healthy regular meals
and adding org. apple juice daily to soften ones liver or gall bladder “stones” for just one week,
(yes our bodies make stones from stress, radiation, improper eating, too much screen time which all create excess cholesterol that hardens into stones and blocks our lovely livers 1500 different activities), which then, age us, as our livers are the managers for our whole body.
Only on the seventh day of that week, do you eat lightly but still 3 easy to digest smaller meals
( no starving or fasting) and then take an extra-virgin olive oil “cocktail” with org. lemon juice and go to bed) Next morning your body effortless flushes the softened stones out of the liver and you do them every month until no more stones are passed. Like you, I was a bit apprehensive, but thousands of people have done this and other even easier Liver & GB flushes instead of gall bladder removal surgery – – which is so very detrimental as we need each organ for balance. Having done a few of these, they made me think twice about eating unhealthfully and burning the candle too much. You just start feeling younger and younger and look more vibrantly beautiful after doing one, too! More frosting on the cake. Harmony.
You are so blessed to have a Mum that intuitively fed you healthfully while you were growing up!!
If you get a reaction in your stomach from alcohol or too acidic foods then you might want to try
the wonderful Kuzu Tea, made with alkaline kuzu chunky powder, that are hydrated like cornstarch and added to a cup of water, simmered till clear and then add real tamari or shoyu, and ume su (umeboshi vinegar) or better yet umeboshi plum and a pinch of grated ginger. Drink hot first thing (after having had a cup or 2 of warmish water upon arising to hydrate) of course,
and then don’t eat or drink anything for an hour or two. It alkalizes your system, removes the acidity, and makes your stomach and intestines feel all soothed and back to normal! You can google Kuzu Tea/ Macrobiotics or see the ckbk. I recommend at the bottom.
Being an entrepreneur, I have seriously been thinking about growing Kuzu (Kudzu) and making alkaline products from it for we Americans are quite acidic which is never a good thing (= Diabetes, Arthritis etc!)
Kudzu grows in the south and is so pervasive and strong! it busts up cement sidewalks so its is the bane of the South, but in Japan its grown and revered as a powerful crop / healing medicine.
It also makes the most wonderful desserts, sauces ( use instead of cornstarch or arrowroot).
Its price is not cheap being imported but we need to make it an org. cash crop here in the states!
A wonderful & healthful cookbook that explains a lot about healing Japanese food: Kuzu w/ wonderful recipes and Umeboshi plums w/ recipes is:
“Cooking With Japanese Foods” by Jan Belleme. The best coconut cream pie recipe, I’ve ever tried is in it too! Perhaps you can check it out at your library, its that special.
Last but not least, I wanted to mention simple Baking Soda, great for stomach upsets, headache, cold coming on, flu and repeat.Truly amazing & again the most alkaline substance on planet Earth!
( 1/2 tsp. 1/2 cup warm or room temp. water, stir thoroughly and dissolve before taking. Hydrate when taking Baking Soda).
At present, I don’t make Puppets, but will be hiring Puppet Co.’s for the T.V. show.
Sorry this is so lengthy! Have a grand afternoon!
Emily