Lately there has been a good amount of French sorrel at the Union Square Greenmarket. I am a fan of its lemony, tart flavor (it's a rhubarb relative) and have been adding it to salads, using the leaves for wraps, adding it to dal, making it into pesto, etc.
Chocolate & Zucchini very usefully compiled suggestions from readers on Twitter for things to do with sorrel!Sorrel pairings:
- Sorrel + fish (especially fatty fish, such as salmon -- seek out a sustainable source -- or mackerel)
- Sorrel + shellfish (especially scallops, same comment as for salmon)
- Sorrel + cream or butter
- Sorrel + bacon
- Sorrel + potatoes
- Sorrel + rice
- Sorrel + lentils
- Sorrel + celeriac
- Sorrel + leafy greens (spinach, Swiss chard, kale)
- Sorrel + eggs
- Sorrel + chicken or veal
- Sorrel + mustard
- Sorrel + goat cheese
Sorrel uses:
- Add to soups
- Make it into a sauce for fish
- Add to omelets and scrambled eggs
- Add to a stuffing for meat
- Shred sorrel and stuff it into fish
- Add to quiches
- Add to mashed potatoes
- Add to hummus
- Add to pasta
- Add to mixed-leaf and herb salads
- Add to chard and spinach anywhere you would use those
- Use as a filling for buckwheat crêpes
- Make it into a pesto, to use in pasta, on pizzas, or with grilled salmon
Recipe ideas:
- Salmon with sorrel, a legendary dish originally invented by the Troisgros brothers in Roanne in 1973
- Baked line-caught seabass with beurre blanc and sorrel
- Chop sorrell into a butter sauce to go with salmon fishcakes.
- Pair with salmon, mustard seeds and raspberries.
- Hot sorrel soup, with leeks, dill and sour cream
- Soup of fresh shelling beans and sorrel
- Green borscht
- Chilled sorrel soup with plain yogurt and lemon (a.k.a. schav in Yiddish)
- Lightly sauté in butter with shallots, deglaze with sherry, then mix all with goat cheese and use as an omelet filling.
- Chicken and sorrel sandwich with fresh mayonnaise
- Toss into mixed-leaf salads, with a relatively sweet dressing, and optional goat cheese crumbled on top.
- Chopped sorrel with black beans or lentils for a cold salad
- Warm potato and salmon salad with sorrel vinaigrette
- A salad of white peaches and sorrel
- Charlotte potato salad with wilted sorrel, yogurt and some freshly grated horseradish and chives
- Rice with sorrel and lemon, served as a side to fish
- Chop with an onion, garlic and mushrooms. Sauté lightly in butter and stuff a chicken.
- Pan sear with butter, and pair with a thin piece of veal in a port reduction, with a very light sprinkling of sumac.
- Fried beans with sorrel, feta and sumac from the second Ottolenghi book, Plenty
- Add to spanakopita.
- Sauté briefly in olive oil and mix with almond butter and salt, to accompany mushrooms (crisp bacon optional).
- Sorrel spinach pesto with pumpkin seeds
- Sprinkle sorrel, chiffonaded or gently melted into frying butter, on fresh pasta. Grate a little lemon zest on top.
- Toss some penne with sorrel, red onion, mint and garlic.
