Polish sorrel soup with egg: sour, creamy, from the first sorrel of spring
A spring soup of fresh sorrel: light chicken stock, potatoes, sorrel briefly wilted in butter to release its sourness, sour cream bound with flour, and half a hard-boiled egg in every bowl. Fresh sorrel is easiest to find from April to June; two or three large bunches from the market are enough for the whole pot.
Your own work in that: 15 min.
- Stock 40 min
- Potatoes cooking 15 min
- Sorrel, cream, serving 15 min
Step by step
0 / 6 doneMake a light stock
Cover the chicken leg, vegetables and spices with water, bring to the boil, skim, salt and simmer 40 minutes. Lift out the meat and vegetables; slice the carrot and set aside, pick the meat off the bone. Strain the stock.
Ingredients: 1 pcs chicken leg · 1800 ml water · 1 pcs carrot · 1 pcs parsley root · 1 pcs celeriac, a piece · 1 pcs leek, white part · 1 pcs bay leaf · 3 pcs allspice berries · 1½ tsp salt
TipSorrel soup likes a light, pale stock. A heavy beef broth drowns the sorrel; vegetable stock or a single chicken leg is just right.
A light stock, forty minutesPrepare the sorrel and eggs
Wash the sorrel thoroughly in a bowl of water, cut off the thick stems, slice the leaves into 1 cm ribbons. Hard-boil the eggs 9 minutes, cool, peel and halve.
Ingredients: 300 g fresh sorrel · 500 g potatoes · 30 g butter · 200 g sour cream, 18 % · 1 tbsp plain flour · 3 pcs eggs · ½ bunch dill · ½ tsp sugar · ½ tsp black pepper
TipSorrel carries a lot of grit at the base of the leaves. Wash in a bowl, not under the tap, changing the water until it runs clear.
Stems off, in ribbons; eggs hard-boiledCook the potatoes in the stock
Cut the potatoes into 1.5 cm dice, add to the stock with the reserved carrot and cook 15 minutes, until tender. The potatoes must be done before the sorrel goes in: they won't soften in a sour soup.
Potatoes tender before the sorrelWilt the sorrel in butter
Melt the butter in a small pan, add the sorrel and cook 3 minutes, stirring, until it wilts and turns from bright green to olive. Add to the soup with the meat and simmer 2 minutes.
TipThe change to olive is unavoidable: heat and acid make the chlorophyll lose its bright green. Every sorrel soup looks like this; it is not a mistake.
From bright to olive, three minutesFinish with sour cream
Mix the sour cream smoothly with the flour, temper with three ladles of hot soup, pour into the pot and bring to the boil, stirring, 2 minutes. Season with sugar, pepper and salt. Taste: the soup should be distinctly sour but not harsh; the sugar softens, it doesn't sweeten.
Sour cream with flour, temperedServe with egg
Half an egg in each bowl, soup from the ladle, dill on top. Keeps 2 days in the fridge; reheat without boiling so the cream doesn't split.
Half an egg, dill
Before you start
From jarred sorrel
Out of season, 300 g preserved sorrel instead of fresh, without wilting in butter; it is already sour and soft. Add the butter to the soup at the end.
With rice
Instead of potatoes, 100 g rice cooked separately and spooned into the bowl. Many Polish homes serve it this way.
The cream split
Cold cream poured into boiling sour soup. Always flour into the cream and temper ladle by ladle, only then into the pot.
