Sorrel can be tricky to find in markets, although I do see it in farmer's markets occasionally. Your best bet is to grow it. Sorrel is indestructible in the garden and grows really easily. I planted a few plants in 2004 and they're still going strong, and expand every year. You can buy sorrel seeds online or in most seed catalogs. Or you can use wild sorrel.
Recipe by Hank Shaw on June 4, 2014
Prep time: PT10M
Cook time: PT15M
Total time: PT25M
Rating
4.67 stars (12 reviews)
Keywords
sauce, sorrel
Ingredients
2/3 cup heavy cream
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/4 pound sorrel leaves, (stems removed)
2 tablespoons vermouth, (or chicken or vegetable stock)
Salt and white pepper to taste
Categories
Sauce
Cuisine
French
Steps
Chiffonade the sorrel by curling up a few leaves at a time and slicing them very thin.
Pour the cream in a small pot and bring it to a simmer. Doing this will prevent it from curdling when it hits all that acidic sorrel in a few minutes.
Meanwhile, in another small to medium pot, heat the butter over medium heat and add the sorrel. Cook the sorrel, stirring often, until it melts -- it will cook down a lot and turn Army green. When it does, stir in the cream and bring the sauce to a bare simmer. It will be pretty thick, so you'll want to add the vermouth or stock to thin it out. You can add another tablespoon if you want the sauce even thinner. Add salt and white pepper to taste and serve.
Nutitrion
Serving Size: 1 serving
Calories: 90 kcal
Carbohydrates: 1 g
Protein: 1 g
Fat: 9 g
Saturated Fat: 6 g
Cholesterol: 31 mg
Sodium: 7 mg
Sugar: 1 g
Reviews
Celine on 2026-04-02 (5 stars): Hank, I love this sauce, especially served over Chilean Sea Bass! My garden sorrel is exploding now in my western Sierra Nevada garden at 3,000 feet. I thought I read that the sauce could be frozen. Maybe I read that someplace else. Have you ever frozen it? I’d love to have it in the freezer to be able to pull out and use when the plant is less than optimal.
Ambra Tosto on 2022-08-03 (4 stars): Very nice recipe. Tried and liked it a lot. One small observation on the post though. At a certain point you say that Oxalis is a wild relative of sorrel. This is actually not correct: the two species are in different plant families and even indifferent orders. They only happen to both have oxalis acid.
Cathy on 2020-03-31 (5 stars): Have a patch of sorrel that I rarely use, but made this and we will make it again and again. I hate to substitute the first time I make a recipe, but with sheltering in place (Covid 19) I used Icelandic skyr non fat instead of cream and also used a stick blender at the end to puree nice and smooth. I can imagine a lot of uses for this - we topped some white runner beans / farro/broth with the sauce and both of us loved it. Thanks for a great and quick recipe.
Richard Prausa on 2019-06-05 (5 stars): Delicious every time! Love this classic sauce over salmon! I don’t always get access to fresh sorrel but Polish and other Eastern European specialty markets often carry jars of it that substitutes nicely.
Erica on 2018-07-08 (5 stars): I made this with half and half, skipped the vermouth/vegetable stock and it turned out perfect and absolutely delicious!
Janice on 2018-04-30 (5 stars): Due to the small size of our single French sorrel plant, I halved your recipe as an excellent companion to the bass BIL caught the day before.
