French sorrel – one of the earliest leaf vegetables of the season, if not the earliest. The young small tender leaves of French sorrel are the best for salads. As for the French sorrel soup (sometimes called green borsch), you can harvest leaves throughout the whole season that lasts basically from frost to frost – early Spring to late Autumn. The French sorrel soup is easy to make and, as sorrel leaves are very tart, you can regulate the acidity of the soup by how much sorrel you use. Here is the recipe that my grandmother and my mother were using.

French Sorrel Soup Recipe

[schema type=”recipe” image=”https://russianfood-ie.com/wp-content/uploads/French-sorrel-soup2.jpg” author=”Oksana Jeter” pubdate=”2015-07-2″ prepmins=”20″ cookmins=”30″ yield=”4″ name=”French Sorrel Soup recipe”  description=”French Sorrel Soup Recipe, Russian Cuisine” ]

Ingredients

• 1200 ml (about 5 cups) boiling beef or chicken stock
• 2 medium carrots
• 3 medium potatoes
• 2 or 3 (to taste) large handfuls of French sorrel leaves
• 2 or more hard boil eggs
• Soured cream to serve

Method

Freshly picked French sorrel should be thoroughly washed in several changes of cool water (I just use my kitchen sink). Make sure you get rid of soil and all little bugs that can be hiding among the leaves. Lay down washed sorrel leaves on a kitchen towel, cover with another one and softly press to pat dry.

It is better to cook French sorrel soup in an enamelled rather then metal pot because of the sorrel’s high acidity.

If you boiled meat or chicken for your stock, get the meat out and filter the stock, now get the stock back to boiling. Separate the meat from bones, joints and fat and cut it into medium pieces. You will be able to add the meat to the soup in the last moment.

To prepare for making the sorrel soup, cube the potatoes and grate the carrots on a large grater. Roughly cut sorrel leaves.

Drop the cubed potatoes into the boiling stock, get back to boil, turn down the gas and cook for 5 minutes. Now add the carrots and the sorrel leaves, get to boil, turn down and boil for another 5 minutes. Then get the meat back to the soup if you are using it, get to boil and turn off.

Serve the French sorrel soup with a half of a hard boil egg and a spoon of soured cream in each bowl. Enjoy this summery soup!

What’s in French sorrel? Sorrel leaves have only 42 kcal for 100 g. There are phosphorus, iron, vitamins A, C, riboflavin B2, thiamine B1 and niacin B3.