Sisnu soup from Nepal

 Sisnu plant is commonly known as the "stinging nettle" in English. It is edible and is one of the native plants in Nepal.

Source: Stok photo from the Internet

The plant has numerous health benefits, according to sources. But the poor in Nepal eat sisnu not because of the health benefits, but because the plants are free for them to use. They pick the tender new shoots of sisnu with a pair of tongs (chimta in Nepali) to avoid the stings and cook it as their main meal. 

 

I grew up in Kathmandu where sisnu plants grew widely in wetlands, between woods, rocks, and shady hills. I had to pass these plants along the narrow paths at least twice a day to and from my school in Baneswor, which I still remember.

 

I don’t have the exact recipe for it, nor have I ever seen anybody preparing this dish. However, my mother was a very inquisitive woman. She had apparently cooked sisnu stir-fry for us one day. We found out only when she asked us how her stir-fry sag tasted, and we replied, “It was really good.” Then she revealed her secret!

Based on the taste of my mother’s sisnu stir-fry and her story about the poor people in her village where she grew up cooking sisnu ko khole for their meal, here is an approximate recipe for sisnu ko khole--substituting spinach leaves for sisnu greens since they taste very similar to me. However, use sisnu greens if you can find them.

Sisnu ko khole

(Mildly spiced stinging nettle soup)

“Khole” is a generic name for ‘beggar’s soup’ that is made of whatever is handed to down to them. Sisnu is one of the perennial plants, native to Nepal. The average sisnu plant can get above a foot tall.  The plant looks like Caribbean spinach greens, but sisnu is covered with a hair-like fuzz and stingy nettles that inject histamines and other poisonous chemicals into the skin on contact. The plant’s stingy nettles become more effective with cold water. Warning: Although sisnu’s stingy nettles and hair-like fuzz fall off and disintegrate in heat, it can burn your skin badly when coming in contact before cooking. Also, before cooking check if you’re allergic to this plant

 

Ingredients

 

454 grams fresh spinach or sisnu greens, chopped coarsely

½ cup rice or legumes of any kind

¼ cup corn or wheat flour to thicken the soup (optional)

1 medium potato, cut into cubes 

1-2 whole chilli pepper, broken into pieces if you want it spicy-hot

5-6 cups water

2 T. ghee or mustard oil 

1 tsp whole cumin or fenugreek seeds for added flavour 

¼ tsp turmeric powder for color

1 tsp salt or to your taste

 

Preparation

 

Step 1.           Clean the greens thoroughly. If you find the sisnu green, wear a pair of rubber gloves before handling it. Wash the green in hot water, discard the woody and old parts, and chop coarsely with a gloved hand. Set aside. Wash the potato, peel, and cut into pieces. Set aside.

 

Step 2.           Brown the seeds in ghee or oil in a deep saucepan. Bring the water to a boil. Add all other ingredients, except for the sisnu greens. Sprinkle the flour over the soup and give a gentle stir. Cover the pot, lower the heat, and let the soup simmer for about 10 minutes. Now, add the sisnu greens and cook for another 5-7 minutes.

 

Serve hot for supper or lunch, as the poor people in my mother’s village did, to get a feel for how their life was. Sisnu ko khole is an exotic hardy soup that should be eaten all by itself.