French Sorrel, a Potherb Rarely Found in Markets

When I encounter visitors to the Garden I often introduce them to my French sorrel (Rumex scutatus), a potherb most people have never experienced, for the supermarkets of today do not carry it.  Back in 1995 Dan Sherman, our landscape architect for the Garden, first introduced me to sorrel.  Dan was the only person that year growing it.  He never got around to making his sorrel soup but invited me to harvest what I wanted.

The next year I sowed French sorrel seeds and was rewarded with more sorrel than I could eat.  Since then, those original plants have multiplied and been shared with other members and with visitors.  When invited, children hesitate to eat the leaves at first but almost always love it once they dare to.  Sorrel like spinach is a member of the Goosefoot family.  Like spinach it is shade tolerant.  Unlike spinach, it is a perennial –– one of the last to harvest in the fall and one of the first in the spring.

Sorrel known scientifically as Rumex scutatus provides a good source of vitamin A and C and is rich in iron.  The leaves are rich in antioxidants and the fresh leaves have diuretic and blood cleansing properties.

People ask how to use it.  I put the leaves in salad. Use the tender new ones for this. They make a nice addition to scramble eggs.  I did make soup once.  If someone else had made that soup, I would have been hard pressed to believe that lemons had not been used.  One member makes a sauce with it and puts it over fish.  Another mentioned that you can make a bed of it in a little water, lay a white fish like cod on it, cover and bake.  The colonials would make a cooling summer drink from it, lemons being in short supply in the northern colonies.  The older, stronger leaves stand up better to cooking.  Recently I found a recipe in a monastic cookbook that used it in rice.  Here is that recipe and another:

   GREEN RICE

   This Good Food by Brother d'Avila-Latourrette

   Serves 6 

 

   4 Tbl olive oil

   1 large onion, well-chopped

   2 c rice

   1 c sorrel (or spinach), well-chopped

   4½ c water

   Salt & pepper to taste

   Pour the olive oil into a deep saucepan and sauté the onion and the rice 

   for 2-3 min until they begin to brown.  Stir continually.

   Pass the sorrel with 2 c water through a blender until thoroughly blended.

   Pour this into the rice, add the remaining water, and a pinch of salt & pepper 

   according to taste.  

   Stir well and cook slowly over LO heat until all the liquid is absorbed.  

   Serve hot.

   SORREL MAYONNAISE

   

   1 c mayonnaise

   1 Tbl sorrel leaves, finely shredded

   2 tsp sorrel purée

   Mix together all ingredients. Makes 1 c.

For more info on sorrel and recipes go to Brenda Hyde's article
Sorrel, a Salad Green AND an Herb and 
Jim Hildreth's article in Flower & Garden Magazine, April 01, 1996
Sorrel Savvy - Growing the Greens Which Is Both Salad Green and Potherb