Sorrel- how do you use it ?

Harvested a bunch of smallish leaves from a patch also growing garlic chive volunteers. Just chopped them both up and dressed with olive oil and sherry vinegar. Lovely. Any must do favorites ?

Harvested a bunch of smallish leaves from a patch also growing garlic chive volunteers. Just chopped them both up and dressed with olive oil and sherry vinegar. Lovely. Any must do favorites ?

Sauerampfersuppe (seriously!)

Mark Lipton

[Jenise]

I've used sorrel very rarely--mostly as fodder for a creamy cold soup that makes a very refreshing summertime amuse bouche. Thing is, it's just not something I see often. Rarely see it up here and used to only find it in the Vietnamese markets of Southern California's Little Saigon, which I lived near. Begs the question: what do the Vietnamese use it for?

All varieties of sorrel are sour with a lemony flavor and it should not be eaten in large quantities as it contains a high amount of oxalic acid. I grew a variety once that looked much like sweet basil. There is a variegated type that is very pretty. It has some medicinal uses, but can't say I would ingest very much of it. I never planted more, because I am not a fan of sour taste. I recall using it in something with goat cheese, perhaps a quiche.

surely it has less oxalic acid than spinach. doesn't it?

according to this website:

http://oxalicacidinfo.com/

spinach has twice as much oxalic acid as sorrel; but rhubarb leaves have twice as much as spinach. chives and parsley are also very high in it.

[Robin Garr]

We had an incredible asparagus and sorrel soup last week at Harvest, a new restaurant in Louisville specializing in farm-to-table fare ... very, very, very good - a thin puree, good fresh asparagus flavor tightened up with the lemony tang of sorrel, served cold with a few drops of bright green chive oil floating on top and a little quenelle of Capriole goat cheese dropped in the center. Gave me a whole new perspective on sorrel.

We're also curious to know if sorrel's cousin wood sorrel is as edible as the regular kind, as it grows wild in our neighborhood as a ground cover, and Mary's gardens are full of it. It has tiny, clover-like leaves, though.

robin; i've eaten it. good flavor; but you need to pick a lot of it.

I've a recipe for a chilled sorrel soup that is lovely. I'll post it in another thread, with the appropriate RCP label.