Sorrel Soup

Sorrel melted down with shallots and butter, simmered with potatoes and finished with crème fraîche. The flavour is sharp, silky, and intensely lemony, with that bright spring acidity that makes it taste unlike any other soup!

Prep15

Cook30

Total45

Servings

DifficultyEasy

Ingredients

300 gr sorrel stalks removed
500 gr floury potatoes peeled and diced
2 shallots finely sliced
40 gr unsalted butter
1 l vegetable stock
150 ml crème fraîche plus extra to serve
4 eggs
salt and black pepper
small bunch flat-leaf parsley or chervil, to garnish

Equipment

Instructions

Prepare the sorrel

Wash the sorrel, strip out the central stalks (hold each leaf and pull the stalk down, as with spinach), and roughly chop. Don't be alarmed by the quantity; it collapses to almost nothing on heat.

Sweat the shallots

Melt the butter in a large saucepan over low-medium heat. Add the shallots and cook gently for about 5 minutes, until soft and translucent with no colour.

Wilt the sorrel

Add the sorrel and stir. It collapses almost immediately and turns olive-brown within 2 to 3 minutes. This is normal (the oxalic acid reacting with heat) and doesn't affect the flavour.

Add the potatoes and stock

Add the diced potato and stir to coat. Pour in the stock, season generously, and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook for 20 to 25 minutes, until the potato is completely tender and breaking apart.

Hard-boil the eggs

While the soup simmers, boil the eggs for 10 minutes, then cool in cold water for 5 minutes, peel and halve lengthways.

Finish the soup

Off the heat, taste for seasoning (you'll likely need more salt than expected). Over low heat, stir in the crème fraîche and warm through. Don't let it boil once the crème fraîche is in.

Serve

Ladle into deep bowls. Set two egg halves cut-side up in each, add a spoonful of crème fraîche, and scatter over parsley or chervil. Finish with black pepper and serve with crusty bread.

Notes

300g of sorrel is the right amount for a well-balanced soup, enough acidity to be the point of the dish without being overwhelming. In early spring, when freshly cut sorrel is at its most pungent, you might even start with 250g and taste as you go.
Fresh sorrel is available from farmers' markets and some greengrocers from April through early summer. It's also straightforward to grow, it's a hardy perennial that returns every year with minimal effort.
If you can only find frozen sorrel, it works reasonably well. Defrost fully before use and proceed as normal; expect the flavour to be a little less vivid than fresh.
The hard-boiled egg is genuinely traditional in several French regions, particularly in Bordeaux and the Limousin. It adds substance and makes this a proper light meal rather than just a starter.
Chervil is the more classically French garnish here, with its delicate anise flavour complementing the soup well. Flat-leaf parsley is a perfectly good substitute.

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