Masses of sorrel

[Mandy]

So on a whim last summer I planted sorrel in my garden. Now I have a HUGE amount and no idea what to do with it. Salad? Frittata? Help!

[Passadumkeg]

I picked sorrel as a kid for my grandmother's sorrel soup, but even more importantly, she made sorrel wine.

[Cami_J]

It makes a very, very delicious drink!!

[S_K]

I like it in rice rolls along with other greens, rice vermicelli and meat.

[Gobessieb]

Cut fresh sorrel into strips (remove the tough center) and use it raw in potato salad.

[BobB]

I discovered recently that chopped sorrel makes a delicious addition to potato salad. In addition to the classic French sorrel soup, there is also a Russian version served warm or cold with sour cream. Google it for a long list of recipes.

[mary shaposhnik]

It is very commonly used as a centerpiece of the meal, in the form of a thick sauce (flavored with some meat or fish, and eaten with the local starch), in several countries in west Africa, especially Mali and Burkina Faso. I don't have any specific recipes, but look around -- I agree that searching with the French term will help -- and you could use it in any recipe calling for "sauce feuilles."

[karykat]

All of these sound like great ideas. I wish we had masses of sorrel. We do have a small patch.

Last night we had a sorrel chive soup from the Herbfarm cookbook that was sensational. Out of this world good. Looking forward to the leftovers of it for tonight.

The recipe had sorrel and chives of course, and chicken broth. Some onion and mushrooms. Not sure what else. (My SO made it.)

I can paraphrase the recipe for you when my SO can bring me the book. Probably tomorrow. Happy sorrel eating!

[karykat]

If you still have sorrel, here's that recipe I was raving about:

Ingredients:

2 TBSP UNSALTED BUTTER
1 MEDIUM ONION (8 OZ.) COURSELY CHOPPED
4 CUPS CHICKEN STOCK
8 OZ. WHITE MUSHROOMS, SLICED
2 TBSP LONG-GRAINED WHITE RICE
1 TBSP SALT
4 OZ. SORREL LEAVES (1 LARGE BUNCH) WASHED AND DRIED
1 CUP (1 OZ.) COARSELY SNIPPED CHIVES
FRESHLY GROUND PEPPER
OPTIONAL GARNISHES: CHIFFONADE OF SORREL; CRÈME FRAICHE OR SOUR CREAM

Sweat onions in butter until soft. Add stock, mushrooms, rice and salt. Bring to a boil. Then cover and reduce heat to simmer for 30 minutes.

Prepare sorrel leaves by pulling leaves off the center stem. You should have about 2 cups firmly packed. Put half of sorrel and half of chives in blender or food processor. Add half of hot soup mixture and puree. Pour into a second sauce pan. Repeat with the rest of the ingredients.

Warm the soup over a medium heat until almost at simmer. Don't let it boil.

Taste and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper if needed. Garnish with a dollop of sour cream or creme fraiche if desired.

Enjoy!

[Gobessieb]

Here's the problem with sorrel soup: It tastes great, but the color is unappetizing so I would never serve it to guests. Maybe the addition of chives as you suggest helps keep the green color more towards fresh and less towards .... well, less towards the brownish yellow side of green.

[buttertart]

Perhaps some baby spinach in at the last and the whole thing puréed?

[monavano]

Schav-Polish sorrel soup!

[buttertart]

It makes a lovely cream soup, good hot or cold. Suggest you Google its name in French "oseille" for lots of recipes (in English as well as French) since it's used more in French cooking than it is in in other cuisines.

[TYMLTEL]

Oh! What a great lead! Thanks. I first had a sorrel soup in England. I have a huge patch of sorrel which is getting eaten by my cucumbers ;-( Going to harvest second and google *oseille* first!

[buttertart]

It is a yummy soup - have some for me!

[GretchenS]

It makes a great sauce for salmon. Saute some chopped onion or shallot, add a bit of minced garlic, then add a whole ton of sorrel (it shrinks like spinach) and saute till it breaks down. It will turn a sort of muddy color as e_i_p says but you won't care once you taste it with your salmon -- that is one of the great pleasures of spring for me!

[Joebob]

In France, we had rabbit breast stuffed with sorrel. Could be replicated using chicken breasts too.

[eight_inch_pestle]

It's delicious used raw, as an herb, anyplace you want a fresh sour tang. I also abso-freaking-lutely adore sorrel in scrambled eggs. Stir in a bit toward the end with a little cream cheese and smoked salmon and go find your running shorts, because you're about to overeat.

And do not fret if you cook it fully and it turns a dull gray. That's how it do. The only solution I've come across is cooking it with a bunch of an herb like parsley that will "bring up" the green color. But that only works, of course, if you want to marry the flavors of sorrel and parsley.

[Gobessieb]

too right about that gross color.

[LNG212]

I adore sorrel frittata. There's something about the slightly sourish/lemonish flavor that really works well with eggs. I also like sorrel soup. A lady at the greenmarket told me that there's an old Polish soup called Shav made of potatoes and sorrel. There are a lot of different recipes out there for it. I made some and it was really good.

You might also do a search of Home Cooking because I think there was a thread on this last summer. And I think a lot of people chimed in, including a mini discussion of Shav (Schav) soup.

Enjoy the sorrel!