You will need a fair bit of sorrel to make this recipe, as it cooks down into a puree alarmingly fast. You can buy sorrel at some fancy supermarkets, a lot of farmer's markets in the spring -- or you can garden your own or forage for it. (If you want to plant it in your garden, you can buy sorrel seed online.) If you can't find it, substitute watercress and use sour cream instead of regular cream.
Prep time: PT10M
Cook time: PT30M
Total time: PT40M
Rating
4.9 stars (37 reviews)
Keywords
sorrel, soups
Ingredients
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, (divided)
1/2 cup chopped green onions, (ramps or other wild onion)
4-6 cups of chopped sorrel, (packed)
Salt
3 tablespoons flour
1 quart chicken stock or vegetable stock
2 egg yolks
1/2 cup cream
Categories
Main Course
Soup
Cuisine
French
Steps
Melt 3 tablespoons butter in a soup pot over medium heat. Add the green onions or ramps and turn the heat to medium-low. Cover the pot and cook gently for 10 minutes.
While the onions are cooking, pour the stock into another pot and bring to a simmer.
Turn the heat up, add the sorrel leaves and a healthy pinch of salt to the pot with the onions and stir well. When the sorrel is mostly wilted, turn the heat back to medium-low, cover and cook 10 minutes. Stir occasionally. Mix in the flour and cook over medium heat for 3 minutes.
Whisk in the hot stock, stirring constantly. Bring this to a simmer.
To finish the soup, whisk together the egg yolks and cream. Temper the mixture by ladling a little soup into it with one hand, while you whisk the egg-cream mix with the other. Repeat this three times. (You are doing this to prevent the eggs from scrambling) Now start whisking the soup. Pour the hot egg-cream-soup mixture into the pot with the soup, whisking all the way. Add the final tablespoon of butter. Let this cook -- below a simmer -- for 5 minutes. Do not let it boil or the soup will break. Serve at once.
Nutitrion
Serving Size: 1 serving
Calories: 306 kcal
Carbohydrates: 10 g
Protein: 9 g
Fat: 27 g
Saturated Fat: 15 g
Cholesterol: 169 mg
Sodium: 92 mg
Sugar: 1 g
Reviews
Matt on 2026-05-05 (5 stars): Lovely recipe, I follow it exactly using the wild sorel and alliums I can find, it is indeed a fine spring tonic. Because in the place I live (isolated rural Japan), cream can be hard to come by, I can attest that this recipe will succeed without it, but I do think it loses part of its character and ineffable "Frenchness".
I absolutely relate to the unappealing colour change with sorrel, pretty sure this is H- from the oxalic acid displacing Mg2+ in chlorophyll (as in many pickled/fermented green vegetables, vine leaves etc.). Not much to be done about it, except maybe mess around with copper (don't recommend, just know it's been done historically).
More practically, I have experimented with a decorating with a "thread" of chive oil as garnish, which I think works nicely to bring back some vibrant green without altering the excellent flavour of this soup.
Jon C. on 2025-09-25 (5 stars): One of my favorite soups. As we speak, I’m doubling this recipe with nearly all of a sorrel plant that’s grown untouched for four months. Need enough for morning leftovers, after all!
Deb MS on 2024-10-04 (5 stars): Like you, I planted sorrel in my yard, but unlike you, I had no idea what to do with it. I’m an adventurous cook so I tried your recipe verbatim and it turned out very very good. I used techniques I had never used before like tempering the egg cream mixture before adding it to the soup. The soup didn’t break and I think it turned out exactly like it was supposed to. It was delicious and pretty easy to cook up. Thanks
William O'Meara on 2024-09-03 (5 stars): This soup has been a family favourite for years. Thank you Hank! I've two points to make. The first is that you CAN freeze the soup and the thawed, warmed up soup will regain about 80% of it's original smooth consistency, but only if you reheat it SLOWLY, and whisk it NON-STOP. The whisking during the slow reheating seems to rebind enough of the fat particles to make the soup passable, at least in my family. My second point is that I was curious whether a vegan, gluten-free version would work, so I tried making one using Hank's recipe. I used Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free 1 to 1 Baking Flour as the flour substitute and Bob's Red Mill Egg Replacer Substitute to replace the egg yolks. Instead of butter, I sauteed the onions in Virgin, Cold-Pressed Olive Oil. The heavy cream was replaced by a mixture of 2/3 Oat Milk and 1/3 Olive Oil, mixed in the blender. I have guests who are vegan or dairy intolerant, and that's what motivated me to try this. IT WORKS!!! And without dairy fat, there is the added bonus that you can freeze the soup. I typically triple this recipe whenever I make it (I have TONS of sorrel) and so most will go into the freezer. A few caveats: when adding the gluten-free flour to the wilted sorrel, whisk the mixture NON-STOP for the entire three minutes while the flour/sorrel mix is cooking. The egg replacement is for a whole egg, whereas the recipe calls for only the yoke. This did not create a problem. When adding the ladels of hot soup to the cream/egg mixture, whisk forcefully and constantly as the consistency is thicker than if you had used cream and eggs. Because of this, I would suggest adding five or six ladels of soup instead of just three. Finally, when the cream/egg mixture has been added back into the soup and stirred in, it is essential to finish the soup with an immersion blender to achieve a perfectly smooth soup. I taste-tested this version with my wife who adores this soup .... she couldn't tell the difference between Hank's version and this vegan gluten-free version. I hope this is helpful to those looking for a vegan, gluten-free version of Hank's masterpiece. :)
Frank canonica on 2024-01-19 (5 stars): If you prefer it less olive colored I like to wash the sorrel leaves in “fruit fresh” or lemon juice in a bowl of water then add them to the soup just before you temper the eggs in. I purée the soup after to break down the sorrel a bit more. It tastes just as good and it stays less dark colored. Thanks for the recipe.
Lisa on 2023-07-17 (5 stars): This was absolutely delicious! It was perfect as written. We inhaled it as is. We also garnished with flaky salt, Urfa chili, Maras pepper and dukkah. Over the top good. I am thinking of making a few batches and stopping before adding stock so that I can freeze the "base" and make it as written (with egg yolks and cream) all year long. Think that would work?
Laurie Roy on 2023-05-26 (5 stars): So good I made it twice in a week!
Gordon Hester on 2022-10-05 (5 stars): I’ve been making this soup for many years, originally following the same Julia Childs recipe that inspired Hank. I generally skip the egg yolks unless I’m serving it hot on the same day I make it. With cream alone, though, it is excellent cold (I prefer it cold over hot) and freezes quite well.
As for growing it, I’ve done so in various climates. Here in Southern Oregon we get down into the teens (F) most every winter, and it doesn’t really phase the sorrel. Given sufficient water it grows like crazy from about February to November and yields an abundant supply of tender leaves. Fertilize once or twice a year with something like worm tea or fish fertilizer. It grows so densely that the liquid fertilizer works best.
Shannon on 2022-06-19 (4 stars): This soup is wonderful. I have found it to be unpleasantly fibrous and added a step of blending and straining it before adding the cream and egg, which solves the problem. Maybe I need to be more careful to remove the ribs and stems as some have suggested.
