Sorrel soup is a soup made out of water or broth, sorrel leaves, and salt. Sorrel is a green plant with a sour taste. Sometimes, other green plants such as spinach, nettle, dandelion, goutweed, or ramsons are used together or instead of sorrel.
Sorrel soup is known in many cuisines, especially in Eastern Europe. It is eaten in Ashkenazi Jewish, Belarusian, Estonian, Hungarian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Romanian, Armenian, Georgian, Polish, Russian, and Ukrainian cuisines.
The soup has many names in English, such as schav, shchav, shav, or shtshav. These names came from the Yiddish language. The Yiddish word comes from Slavic languages such as Ukrainian, Russian, and Belarusian. The name also came from an old Slavic word that also meant sorrel.
Because it is common in Eastern Europe, sorrel soup is also called as green borscht, as it is similar to beetroot borscht. But, green borscht is cooked with green plants instead of beets. In Russia, it is also called green shchi, which is related to a cabbage soup called shchi. In older Russian cookbooks, it was simply called “green soup.”
Sorrel soup also contains other ingredients such as egg yolks, whole eggs, potatoes, carrots, parsley root, and rice. Some Ukrainian versions of green borscht also contain beetroot.
In Polish, Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Russian cooking, the soup is made with broth instead of plain water. It is usually served with smetana, which is a type of sour cream from Eastern Europe. The soup can be eaten hot or cold.
Sorrel soup has a sour taste. It is because it contain oxalic acid. This acid gives the soup its sharp flavour. When sour cream is added, the sour taste may become weaker because the acid reacts with parts of the cream. Some people describe the taste as similar to spinach or walnuts.