Ingredients
Soup
- 300 gsorrel
- 1.5 litreslight stock
- 3potatoes, diced
- 1carrot, grated
- 1onion, chopped
- 2 tbspbutter
- 1bay leaf
- salt
- black pepper
To serve
- 4eggs, hard-boiled
- 1 bunchdill
- spring onions
- 200 mlsmetana
Directions
- Wash the sorrel very thoroughly and pick the leaves from the stems, discarding any thick ribs.
- Boil the diced potatoes in the stock with the bay leaf for about 10 minutes, until nearly tender.
- Fry the onion and grated carrot in the butter until soft, then add them to the pot.
- Chop the sorrel coarsely and add it.
- Add the sorrel at the very end and cook it no more than two or three minutes.
- Sorrel turns from bright green to drab olive within a couple of minutes in hot stock, and its sourness fades with long cooking too. Late and brief is the only way to keep either.
- Taste for salt and pepper. It should be distinctly sour, and if the sorrel is mild a squeeze of lemon corrects it.
- Stir most of the chopped dill and spring onion through off the heat.
- Halve or quarter the hard-boiled eggs.
- Ladle the soup into bowls, add the egg, and put a large spoonful of smetana on top.
- Serve it hot in spring and cold in high summer, both of which are entirely normal.
- It is made when the first sorrel comes up in late spring, and the beetroot that gives red borscht its colour has nothing to do with it.
Technique
- Sorrel, not spinach. Spinach gives the colour and none of the sourness, which is the whole character of the soup.
- Young nettle tops are the traditional partner to the sorrel and go in at the same moment.
- Some households thicken it with a spoonful of flour whisked into a little of the stock.
Substitutions
- Spinach with lemon juice or a pinch of citric acid, which approximates it.
- Frozen sorrel, sold in blocks, which works very well.
Variations
- With nettles alongside the sorrel.
- Meatless, on a vegetable stock, for Lent.
- Served cold with kefir in place of smetana in high summer.
History
A soup built on a base of sorrel, a tart leafy green, cooked with potato and often hard-boiled egg, documented across Ukraine as a distinctly springtime variation on the country’s more famous beetroot-based borscht, relying on sorrel’s naturally sour flavour rather than beetroot for its characteristic tang. Its seasonal association with spring reflects sorrel’s specific growing season, when the tender young leaves become available before many of the root vegetables used in traditional red borscht are ready for harvest. Green borscht remains a beloved seasonal dish across Ukraine, closely tied to springtime and the specific culinary calendar of Ukrainian home cooking.
Frequently asked questions
What is Green borscht?
Green borscht is a soup & stew from Ukraine: spring sorrel soup with boiled egg, potato. A soup built on a base of sorrel, a tart leafy green, cooked with potato and often hard-boiled egg, documented across Ukraine as a distinctly springtime variation on the country’s more famous beetroot-based borscht, relying on sorrel’s naturally sour flavour rather than beetroot for its characteristic tang. Its seasonal association with spring reflects sorrel’s specific growing season, when the tender young leaves become available before many of the root vegetables used in traditional red borscht are ready for harvest. Green borscht remains a beloved seasonal dish across Ukraine, closely tied to springtime and the specific culinary calendar of Ukrainian home cooking.
How long does Green borscht take to make?
Green borscht takes 20 min of preparation and 30 min of cooking. The recipe makes 6 servings. It is rated easy to make.
What can I substitute in Green borscht?
Yes, within limits. Spinach with lemon juice or a pinch of citric acid, which approximates it. Frozen sorrel, sold in blocks, which works very well.
What is the most important thing to get right in Green borscht?
Sorrel turns from bright green to drab olive within a couple of minutes in hot stock, and its sourness fades with long cooking too. Late and brief is the only way to keep either.
