A sharp, lemony herb-leaf vegetable with one of the most intensely sour tastes in the vegetable garden — its oxalic acid content gives it a flavour like lemon juice with green leafy notes; used in French sorrel soup, as a sauce with fish, wilted with cream, or raw in salads where it cuts through richness.
Oxalic acid and sourness
Sorrel’s sharp flavour comes from oxalic acid — the same compound responsible for the sharpness of rhubarb. Raw sorrel leaves taste like a vivid combination of lemon juice and fresh leaves; cooked, they collapse dramatically and the colour changes from bright green to khaki-brown as the acid reacts with the chlorophyll. The flavour mellows slightly with cooking but remains distinctly sour.
Classic French uses
French cuisine makes excellent use of sorrel. Potage à l’oseille (sorrel soup) is a classic spring soup: sorrel wilted in butter, combined with cream and stock, producing a bright green, intensely flavoured soup. Sorrel sauce is a classic accompaniment to salmon — the acidity balances the richness of the fish in the same way lemon juice does, but with more complexity.
A garden perennial
Sorrel is exceptionally easy to grow — a perennial that emerges reliably each spring before almost anything else is available. A small patch in a vegetable garden provides fresh lemony greens from March onwards. It can be harvested repeatedly through the season, with new leaves replacing cut ones.
Caution with oxalate
People with kidney stones (particularly calcium oxalate type) or kidney disease should limit sorrel consumption due to its high oxalate content. Cooking reduces oxalate levels somewhat. Sorrel should not be cooked in aluminium, as the acid reacts with the metal.
Find more vegetables by letter
Sorrel starts with S and ends with L. Browse other vegetables along the same letter.
Vegetables that contain a letter from "Sorrel":