Sorrel

Sorrel is a vegetable that is thoroughly worth growing yet few people do. Given how popular is its use in sauces in France this is a pity, since it’s not all that easy to find in supermarkets or farmers’ markets. It reappears in the ground without fail every year from April to September, in a clump that increases annually. It doesn’t mind being grown in poor soil and is perfectly happy being raised in a large flower pot. 

We’re talking about common sorrel here, Rumex acetosa, not to be confused with ‘sorrel of the Caribbean’, Hibiscus sabdariffa, whose name will immediately bring to mind that gorgeous red flower used to make sour tea, juice, jams and jellies.

Although cultivated as a leaf vegetable or herb, French sorrel (oseil) can be foraged for in the wild in common grassland. But it’s probably best to leave it in place if the field is used by animals and pets. Its leaves look similar to dock, which gives it its other English names: narrow-leaved dock, spinach dock, arctic dock, patience dock, sheep sorrel, and broad-leaved and red-veined sorrel. 

While the leaves are best picked young, if they have matured the green need only to be stripped off the fibrous stem which is then discarded. Baby leaves or torn larger leaves can be added raw to a salad for a lemony kick. It’s that lemon taste which makes it so attractive for flavouring rich cream or butter sauces to go with fish or chicken or egg dishes. If you add actual lemon juice to such a sauce, it’s likely to curdle the cream. When using sorrel, however, if you’ve made sure you’ve first heated the cream in a separate pan before incorporating the sorrel, there’s less possibility of curdling the cream and the sorrel will add that lemon tartness without the danger. 

Sadly, its lovely forest green becomes a grungy shade of khaki as soon as the leaves are exposed to the hot melted butter, or cream, or boiling stock that is part of the recipes. But the flavour compensates for the loss of colour.

It’s a nutritious plant, high in fibre, magnesium, vitamins C and A, antioxidants, and other micronutrients. However, if you’re allergic to rhubarb, buckwheat or knotweed, don’t eat it. Sorrel is part of the same family.  

Like spinach, what looks like a generous bunch will wilt down to a miniscule amount, so buy or pick much more than you believe is necessary. Fresh sorrel sauce needs to be used at once as it won’t keep well. But since you can freeze it, it’s worth making a large amount of it to divide into small portions you can bring out when you don’t have time to tizzy up a piece of fish or a breast of chicken with other culinary tricks. 

What you mustn’t do is cook it in any copper or copper alloy pan. As with spinach, the acid sorrel contains doesn’t just cause the metal to leach into the food but it also erodes the pan’s tin or stainless steel surface lining.

To alter the flavour of a Potage Bonne Femme leek-and-potato soup, once those vegetables have softened, add a generous handful or more of finely sliced shreds of sorrel leaf and stir them in until they have broken down.

A sorrel sauce makes a particularly good companion to a fillet of salmon. Just steam a thick slice until still slightly rosy in the middle (you don’t want that sawdust texture of a conference catering salmon) and lay it on a puddle of the sauce.

155ml cream
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
115g sorrel leaves, stems removed
2 tablespoons vermouth, or chicken or vegetable stock 
salt and white pepper to taste

1. Pile a few sorrel leaves on top of one another and roll them up like a cigar. Slice them across in thin strips.
2. Bring the cream to a simmer in a small pan.
3. In a separate pan, heat the butter over medium heat. Add the sorrel and wilt it, stirring often, until it collapses.
4. Stir in the cream and bring to a low simmer.
5. Add the vermouth and stock to thin it out to the consistency you want. Season with salt and white, not black, pepper.

This column written by Julia Watson originally appeared in the April 2022 edition of  The Bugle.