While sorrel is a rather sour, slightly citrus-like plant, it makes for a wonderful light soup that has a nice level of sharpness. The colour isn’t bright but the flavour certainly is. This simple spring soup is made with a base of potatoes, onion, and broth, finished with wilted sorrel blended in. It’s normal for sorrel soup to turn a little brown and not be the vivid green of a wild garlic or nettle soup.
Sorrel, like spinach and other greens, is high in oxalates, part of what gives it the sour flavour. Oxalates can have a bad reputation but that’s mostly unfounded. While it’s probably not a good idea to eat a kilo of sorrel a day, every day, normal amounts won’t do any harm at all – much like other more common foods like carrots. You can read more about sorrel here.
Miles Irving’s The Forager Handbook notes, “The ideal time for gathering is spring, just before it flowers, when the leaves are large and plentiful.” He also writes that the explorers in the Franklin expedition to the Arctic avoided scurvy almost certainly due to the large quantities of wild sorrel they ate en route – an interesting little bit of history.
If you have some more wild greens to use, try making stinging nettle pesto or garlic mustard pesto (my favourite), or mix up a batch of wild garlic salt.
Ingredients
Ingredient Notes and Substitutions
- Sorrel: use any type of sorrel, they all taste similar. Common sorrel, pictured, is (shocking) common and makes a good garden plant if you can’t find it in a wild space.
- Potatoes: floury or starchy potatoes are best for this soup.
- Cream: pictured is a cashew cream but you could use any dairy or non-dairy crème fraîche, sour cream, or heavy cream. It’s only for finishing the soup so it can be omitted.
- Broth: I recommend sticking with a light vegetable broth so that the taste of the sorrel is the focus.
- Add-ins: if you want to have this as a main, blend in some cooked white beans. I usually serve it with poached eggs and whole grain bread.
Step by Step
Step 1: cook the onions until translucent.
Step 2: add the potatoes, broth, and seasoning. Cook until the potatoes are soft.
Step 3: turn off the heat and stir in the sorrel.
Step 4: blend until smooth and season to taste before serving.
Recipe Notes
If you want a greener soup, add a more neutral green like spinach in addition to the sorrel. Don’t increase the sorrel amount as the soup will be too sour.
This is a very simple recipe, but it is delicious, and that lies in using good ingredients. Seek out floury potatoes, use a good broth, and trust the sorrel to shine through. It’s one of those recipes that relies on a solid base and a bit of cooking knowledge (or at least sticking to a recipe).
How to Store
Storage: keep in a sealed container in the refrigerator for up to three days. I don’t recommend storing this soup at room temperature as it spoils very quickly.
Freezing: transfer cooled soup to an airtight container and freeze for up to a month. Thaw in the refrigerator before reheating as usual.
Expert Tips
- Don’t brown too much: try to keep the onions light, or it can take over the soup a bit.
- Stick with the amounts: this is a carefully balanced soup and changing the quantities, particularly of the sorrel and potatoes, will ruin that balance. Note that not even garlic is added, in order to keep the subtle flavours carefully aligned.
- Keep the green: if you blend the sorrel with a little olive oil before adding to the soup, it will help to preserve the green colour. I don’t think the colour is an issue so I don’t do this.
More Spring Soups
Potato Leek Soup with lemon
Vegan French Onion Soup
Spring Green Minestrone
Carrot and Parsnip Soup
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Potato Sorrel Soup
Ingredients
- 2 teaspoons oil
- 1 medium onion diced
- 400 grams floury potatoes diced
- 750 ml vegetable broth
- 1 teaspoon sea salt to taste
- ½ teaspoon black pepper to taste
- 100 grams sorrel leaves only
- Optional cream and herbs for topping
Instructions
- Heat the oil over low-medium in a large pot. Once hot, add the onion and cook for about 10 minutes, stirring frequently, until translucent but not too browned. If the onions are browning too much, reduce the heat.2 teaspoons oil, 1 medium onion
- Add the potatoes, broth, salt, and pepper. Cover and increase the heat to bring the soup to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer, covered, for about 10 minutes or until the potatoes are fork-soft.400 grams floury potatoes, 750 ml vegetable broth, 1 teaspoon sea salt, ½ teaspoon black pepper
- Stir in the sorrel. Use an immersion blender or heat-safe blender to mix until very smooth. Season to taste and serve hot, optionally topped with cream and herbs like chives.100 grams sorrel
- Sorrel soup should be stored in the refrigerator and can be frozen.
Video
* For American cup measurements, please click the pink link text above the ingredient list that says ‘American’.
Nutrition
Nutrition is provided as a courtesy and is an estimate. If this information is important to you, please have it verified independently.
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