sorrel soup

{{Infobox food

| name = Sorrel soup

| image = Sorrel soup with egg and croutons (Zupa szczawiowa z jajkiem i grzankami).jpg

| image_size = 250px

| caption = Polish sorrel soup with egg and croutons

| alternate_name = Green borscht, green shchi, green soup

| country =

| region = Eastern and Northeastern Europe

| creator =

| course =

| type = Soup

| served = Hot or cold

| main_ingredient = Water or broth, sorrel leaves, and salt

| variations =

| calories =

| other =

}}

Sorrel soup is made from water or broth, sorrel leaves, and salt.{{cite book

| last = Burlakoff

| first = Nikolai

| title = The World of Russian Borsch: Explorations of Memory, People, History, Cookbooks & Recipes

| year = 2013

| publisher = Createspace Independent Pub

| location = North Charleston, SC

| isbn = 978-1484027400

}}Екатерина Авдеева. Ручная книга русской опытной хозяйки. СПб, 1842 {{bracket|Yekaterina Avdeeva. A Handbook of the Russian experienced housewife. St. Petersburg, 1842}}Елена Молоховец. Подарок молодым хозяйкам. 1-е издание, 1861, с. 65 {{bracket|Elena Molokhovets. A Gift to Young Housewives. First Russian edition, 1861, p. 65}}{{cite encyclopedia

| last = Marks

| first = Gil

| encyclopedia = Encyclopedia of Jewish Food

| title = Schav

| year = 2010

| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=gFK_yx7Ps7cC&q=schav

| publisher = John Wiley & Sons

| location = Hoboken

| isbn = 978-0-470-39130-3

}}{{cite book

| last = Ochorowicz-Monatowa

| first = Maria

| title = Uniwersalna książka kucharska z ilustracyami i kolorowemi tablicami odznaczona na wystawie hygienicznej w Warszawie w 1910 r. : przeszło 2200 skromnych i wytwornych przepisów gospodarskich i kuchennych z uwzględnieniem niezbędnych warunków odpowiedniej dyety codziennej hygieny oraz kuchni jarskiej

| publisher = E. Wende i S-ka

| location = Warszawa / Lwów

| year = 1913

| language = Polish

}} Varieties of the same soup include spinach, garden orache, chard, nettle, and occasionally dandelion, goutweed or ramsons, together with or instead of sorrel.{{cite book

| last = Artyukh

| first = Lidiya

| title = Ukrayinska narodna kulinariya

| trans-title = Ukrainian folk cuisine

| script-title = uk:(Українська народна кулинарія)

| year = 1977

| publisher = Naukova dumka

| location = Kyiv

| language = Ukrainian

| page = 55

}}

{{cite book

| last1 = Chakvin

| first1 = Igor

| title = Этнокультурные процессы Восточного Полесья в прошлом и настоящем

| last2 = Gurko

| first2 = Alexandra

| last3 = Kasperovich

| first3 = Galina

| script-title = ru:Этнокультурные процессы Восточного Полесья в прошлом и настоящем

| trans-title = Ethnocultural processes of Eastern Polesie in the past and present

| year = 2014

| publisher = Litres

| language=ru

| page = 78

| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=cS2zBAAAQBAJ&q=борщ+лебеды&pg=PA78

| isbn = 9785457646278

}}{{cite book

| last1 = Guboglo

| first1 = Mikhail

| title = Украинцы: Историко-этнографический очерк традиционной культуры

| last2 = Simchenko

| first2 = Yuri

| script-title = ru:Украинцы: Историко-этнографический очерк традиционной культуры

| trans-title = Ukrainians: A historical ethnographic essay of the traditional culture

| year = 1992

| publisher = Российская академия наук, Институт этнологии и антропологии им. Н.Н. Миклухо-Маклая

| location = Москва

| page = 98

| language=ru

| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=UGQiAQAAMAAJ&q=зеленый+борщ

}} It is known in Ashkenazi Jewish, Belarusian, Estonian, Hungarian, Latvian,{{cite book |last1=Ošiņa |first1=Sandra |last2=Ošiņš |first2=Valdis |title=Traditional and modern Latvian foods and beverages |year=2014 |url=https://www.celotajs.lv/cont/publ/LatviesuEdieni2014/pdf/LatviesuEdieni2014_en.pdf#page=15 |publisher=The Association of Latvian Rural Tourism}} Lithuanian, Romanian, Armenian, Georgian, Polish, Russian and Ukrainian cuisines. Its other English names, spelled variously schav, shchav, shav, or shtshav, are borrowed from the Yiddish language, which in turn derives from Slavic languages, like for example Belarusian шчаўе, Russian and Ukrainian щавель, shchavel, Polish szczaw. The soup name comes ultimately from the Proto-Slavic ščаvĭ for sorrel.{{cn|date=June 2024}} Due to its commonness as a soup in Eastern European cuisines, it is often called green borscht, as a cousin of the standard, reddish-purple beetroot borscht. In Russia, where shchi (along with or rather than borscht) has been the staple soup, sorrel soup is also called green shchi.{{cite book

| last = Pokhlyobkin

| first = William

| author-link = William Pokhlyobkin

| trans-title = National cuisines of our peoples

| script-title = ru:Национальные кухни наших народов

| year = 2004

| publisher = Centrpolograf

| location = Moscow

| language = ru

| page = 28

| isbn = 5-9524-0718-8

| url = http://www.jagannath.ru/users_files/books/V.V._Pohlyobkin_-_Natcionalnye_kuhni_na6ih_narodov.pdf }} [http://supercook.ru/pohlebkin-nknn/pohlebkin-nknn-06.html Щи]{{cite book

| title = Cookery

| script-title = ru:Кулинария

| url = http://kulinaria1955.ru/

| access-date = 2 August 2015

| location = Москва

| publisher = Госторгиздат (Soviet state publishing house for business literature)

| date = 1955{{ndash}}58

| language=ru}} [http://kulinaria1955.ru/supy/goryachie_supy/zapravochnye_supy/schi/ Щи], [http://kulinaria1955.ru/natsionalnye_bliuda_soiuznyh_respublik/ukrainskie_bliuda/2805-2452-borsch-zelenyy-ukrainskiy.html Борщ зелёный украинский] In old Russian cookbooks it was called simply green soup.

Sorrel soup usually includes further ingredients such as egg yolks or whole eggs (hard-boiled or scrambled), potatoes, carrots, parsley root, and rice.{{cite web|url=http://www.enjoyyourcooking.com/soup-recipes/sorrel-pork-soup-green-borscht.html|title=Sorrel and Pork Soup (Green Borscht) Recipe|author-first1=Julia|author-last1=Volhina|date=18 June 2011|website=EnjoyYourCooking}} A variety of Ukrainian green borscht also includes beetroot. In Polish, Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Russian cuisines, sorrel soup may be prepared using any kind of broth instead of water. It is usually garnished with smetana, an Eastern European variety of sour cream. It may be served either hot or chilled.

Sorrel soup is characterized by its sour taste due to oxalic acid (called "sorrel acid" in Slavic languages) present in sorrel.{{cite web|url=https://www.npr.org/2009/05/20/104313902/sorrel-makes-sour-sweet|title=Sorrel Makes Sour Sweet|author-last1=Wolf|author-first1=Bonny|date=20 May 2009|access-date=27 March 2025|url-status=live|archive-date=25 December 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241225051657/https://www.npr.org/2009/05/20/104313902/sorrel-makes-sour-sweet|website=Kitchen Window|publisher=NPR}} The "sorrel-sour" taste may disappear when sour cream is added, as the oxalic acid reacts with calcium and casein.{{cite web|url=https://etnocook.com/best-traditional-green-borshch-recipe-ukrainian-sorrel-soup/|website=Etnocook|title=Best Traditional Green Borshch recipe (Ukrainian Sorrel Soup)|author-last1=Tiazhka|author-first1=Lilia|date=22 July 2021|access-date=27 March 2025|url-status=live|archive-date=20 January 2025|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250120170639/https://etnocook.com/best-traditional-green-borshch-recipe-ukrainian-sorrel-soup/|quote=after adding sour cream the sorrel acid disappears after the reaction between oxalic acid, calcium from the sour cream, and casein}} Some may refer to sorrel flavor as "tannic," as with spinach or walnuts.

File:Borscz zelenyj ukr.jpg|Green borscht with egg and sour cream

File:Green borscht spinach smetana.jpg|Green borscht made with spinach instead of sorrel and with potatoes

File:Борщ зелений.jpeg|Ukrainian green borscht including both sorrel and beetroot