Sorrel: Benefit and Harm

Sor­rel begins to turn green in the beds, almost the very first, only snow from the ground — it is right there: the leaves are smooth, shiny, dense, juicy. Good greens! .. Only sor­rel — it is not quite green.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumex

It is more cor­rect to call it a leaf veg­etable. And this is despite the fact that his taste, to put it mild­ly, is not veg­etable, but in appear­ance he is grass with grass. But it is almost uni­ver­sal: it is suit­able for cook­ing, and for stew­ing, and for pick­ling, and for fill­ings and stuff­ing, and is in har­mo­ny with almost all prod­ucts.

What substances and vitamins are found in sorrel?

Sor­rel is amaz­ing­ly rich in vit­a­mins and min­er­als. Its juicy leaves con­tain vit­a­mins C, K, E, B vit­a­mins, biotin, β‑carotene, essen­tial oils, polyphe­no­lic acids, flavonoids and antho­cyanins, oxal­ic acid, mag­ne­sium, phos­pho­rus, iron … At the same time, the ener­gy val­ue of 100 g of sor­rel is only 21 kcal. An ide­al prod­uct for those who fol­low the fig­ure!

For an organ­ism tired of the win­ter cold, a young sor­rel is a real find. 100 g of suc­cu­lent leaves con­tain about 55% of the dai­ly require­ment of vit­a­min C, and this vit­a­min is an excel­lent pro­phy­lac­tic against beriberi and ane­mia, in addi­tion, it improves the absorp­tion of iron, and thus helps to increase the lev­el of hemo­glo­bin in the blood.

Who benefits from sorrel?

Sor­rel stim­u­lates the activ­i­ty of the intestines, with gas­tri­tis with a weak secre­tion of gas­tric juice, the use of sor­rel increas­es acid­i­ty, nor­mal­iz­ing diges­tion. Small por­tions of oxal­ic juice have a choleretic effect, which is wide­ly used in folk med­i­cine. Also in folk med­i­cine, sor­rel is known as a good anti-inflam­ma­to­ry agent. In addi­tion, sor­rel is suc­cess­ful­ly used in ther­a­peu­tic diets for dis­eases of the heart and blood ves­sels. Oxal­ic acid helps to remove bad cho­les­terol from the body and … helps keep mus­cles in good shape.

The use of sor­rel is rec­om­mend­ed for women dur­ing menopause. The B vit­a­mins and antiox­i­dants found in these leafy greens sup­port the ner­vous sys­tem and pro­mote cell renew­al, while the potas­si­um helps reg­u­late and smooth blood pres­sure spikes.

To whom is sorrel contraindicated?

In the use of sor­rel, the main thing is to know the mea­sure. Excess oxal­ic acid can lead to the for­ma­tion of kid­ney stones and leach­ing of cal­ci­um from the body, which can pro­voke the devel­op­ment of gout or osteo­poro­sis.

Sor­rel will not be use­ful for those who suf­fer from high acid­i­ty, have dis­eases of the gas­troin­testi­nal tract, accom­pa­nied by this symp­tom. Preg­nant women and nurs­ing moth­ers should also refrain from fre­quent use of sor­rel. How­ev­er, sor­rel, which has under­gone heat treat­ment, los­es some of the acid and in this form can be “admit­ted to the table.” Of course, in rea­son­able quan­ti­ties.

How to make sorrel less sour?

The soft­est and most palat­able are young sor­rel leaves, but even among them there are too sour. To get rid of excess acid, give the leafy veg­etable a “hot bath” in a deep bowl, if only for a few sec­onds.

The acid can be neu­tral­ized by adding a lit­tle sug­ar, hon­ey, sour cream or cream to the dish. Heat treat­ment will change the taste of sor­rel: blanched or steamed, it will become much more ten­der, lose its unpleas­ant sour­ness and sparkle with more pleas­ant, hid­den nuances.

Sorrel as a cleanser

Sor­rel con­tains a large amount of oxal­ic acid. It per­fect­ly whitens alu­minum uten­sils, it is good to clean cop­per prod­ucts, dark­ened cut­ting boards, and oth­er wood­en objects with it. “Get­ting” oxal­ic acid is very sim­ple: you need sor­rel, hot water and boil­ing. For exam­ple, to restore the orig­i­nal shine of an enam­el pot, boil sor­rel leaves in it in a small amount of water, and wipe the out­er sur­face of the hot pot with sor­rel broth. A wood­en cut­ting board will become lighter if you cov­er it with a kitchen tow­el soaked in sor­rel broth for 25–30 min­utes. Dark­ened table­spoons? Dip them in sor­rel broth — they will shine like new.

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What is sorrel served for?

Sor­rel is in per­fect har­mo­ny with fish. With young juicy leaves, you can cook noble salmon, and more pro­sa­ic carp, and even large cru­cians. Too many bones in riv­er fish, you say? And this does not mat­ter: oxal­ic acid dur­ing cook­ing will soft­en them per­fect­ly. And you need quite a bit for this: line the bel­ly of the fish pre­pared for bak­ing with sor­rel leaves — and into the oven. Unusu­al and incred­i­bly deli­cious!

Veloute soup with coconut milk, sorrel and sweet potato

Cook­ing time: 1 hour

For 4 serv­ings:

• 3 large bunch­es of sor­rel
• 500 g of bata­ta
• 300 ml of coconut milk
• 50 ml of olive oil
• 750 ml veg­etable broth
• salt pep­per

Peel sweet pota­toes, wash, dry and cut into slices. Wash the sor­rel, sort it out, dry it, remove the stems, chop the leaves coarse­ly. Set aside some chopped sor­rel for serv­ing.

Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan, add the sweet pota­to and sor­rel and cook, stir­ring, for 5 min­utes. Pour in the broth, salt, pep­per, bring to a boil and cook cov­ered for 40 min­utes.

Remove the saucepan from the heat and puree the veg­eta­bles and broth with an immer­sion blender. Pour in 250 ml of coconut milk, bring to a boil and remove from heat.

Pour the velouté into serv­ing bowls. Serve hot, pour­ing a lit­tle of the remain­ing milk into each serv­ing.

Dorada stuffed with sorrel, with raisins and warm pesto

Cook­ing time: 45 min.

For 4 serv­ings:

• 1 sea bream, ready for cook­ing (approx. 1.3 kg)
• 2 bunch­es of sor­rel
• 75 g wal­nuts
• 50 g white raisins
• 150 ml of olive oil
• 1/2 lemon

Heat the oven to 210ºС. Pre­pare a bak­ing dish.

Rub the fish with salt and pep­per. Fine­ly chop the lemon. Rinse the sor­rel, sort, dry and fine­ly chop.

Mix half of the sor­rel with raisins, lemon and 1 tbsp. l. oils. Salt and pep­per the mass and fill the bel­ly of the fish with it.

Put the fish in a bak­ing dish, pour 50 ml of oil and bake for 25 min­utes.

Dry the nuts in a pan with­out fat, chop and mix with the remain­ing sor­rel in a small saucepan. Add the remain­ing oil, salt and pep­per to taste. Serve hot fish. Serve the pesto in a sep­a­rate bowl.

Cocotte eggs in sorrel sauce with sour cream

Cook­ing time: 25 min.

For 4 serv­ings:

• 4 large eggs
• 8 art. l. thick non-acidic sour cream
• 1 bunch of sor­rel
• 1/2 lemon
• 30 g but­ter
• salt pep­per

Heat the oven up to 180ºС. Fill a deep mold with hot water and place 4 por­tion molds into it so that they are 2/3 immersed in water. Place the tray in the oven.

Fine­ly grate the lemon zest. Rinse the sor­rel, sort it out, dry it, set aside 2–3 leaves.

In a fry­ing pan with hot but­ter, fry the sor­rel over high heat until the leaves fall off. Trans­fer the sor­rel to anoth­er bowl, let cool, squeeze well on a sieve and chop coarse­ly.

Mix chopped sor­rel with sour cream, beat light­ly, add 2/3 lemon zest, salt and pep­per to taste.

Divide the mass into por­tion molds, release 1 egg into each, light­ly salt and pep­per and bake for 10 min­utes.

Chop the reserved sor­rel leaves very fine­ly and sprin­kle the cocote eggs in the sauce. Serve the dish hot.

Creamy potato soup with sorrel and spinach

Cook­ing time 35 min.

For 4 serv­ings:

• 300 g of sor­rel and spinach
• 4–5 pota­to tubers
• 1 veg­etable stock cube
• 1/2 bunch of green onions
• 2 sal­ad cucum­bers
• 3 boiled eggs
• lemon acid
• 1 st. l. veg­etable oil
• salt pep­per

Rinse the sor­rel and spinach, sort it out, pour 100 ml of water in a saucepan and cook until the leaves fall off and let the juice go. Rub the liq­uid mix­ture through a sieve into a clean bowl.

Peel the pota­toes, wash them, boil until cooked in enough water and puree, adding the green mass.

Pre­pare a bouil­lon from a cube and dilute the soup with it to the desired con­sis­ten­cy. Add salt, pep­per and cit­ric acid to taste. Bring soup to a boil and remove from heat.

Wash cucum­bers and onions, dry and fine­ly chop. Peel and chop the eggs. Mix the pre­pared prod­ucts in a bowl, salt, pep­per and driz­zle with veg­etable oil.

Pour the soup into serv­ing bowls. Add veg­etable mix­ture with eggs to each serv­ing.

Pie with sorrel, potatoes and cheese

Cook­ing time: 2 hours

For 6–8 serv­ings:

For test:

• 300 g flour
• 1/2 sachet dry yeast
• 1/2 tsp. year
• 1 st. l. veg­etable oil
• flour and but­ter for dusting/greasing the pan
• 1 yolk

For the fill­ing:

• 3 pota­toes
• 1 large bunch of sor­rel
• 200 g cot­tage cheese
• 100 ml cream
• 150 g of grat­ed cheese
• 1 Art. l. Sahara
• salt pep­per

Sift flour into a deep bowl, mix with yeast and salt, add veg­etable oil. Pour­ing in a thin stream of approx. 200 ml of warm water, knead with your hands a smooth, non-sticky dough. Cov­er the dough with a cloth and leave to rise in a warm, draft-free place for 1 hour.

Wash the pota­toes and, with­out peel­ing, boil until ten­der. Peel the cooked pota­toes and cut into approx. 5 mm. Rinse and sort the sor­rel, put it in a colan­der and pour over boil­ing water. Squeeze the pre­pared sor­rel, fine­ly chop and sprin­kle with sug­ar in a bowl. Grind cot­tage cheese with cream, salt and pep­per.

On a floured work sur­face, punch down the dough, roll it into a lay­er and line it with a greased form so that the edges of the dough hang slight­ly over the sides of the form. Put sor­rel on the dough, cov­er with a lay­er of cot­tage cheese and put pota­to mugs on it. Salt pota­toes and sprin­kle with grat­ed cheese.

Wrap the edges of the dough over the fill­ing and leave the cake at room tem­per­a­ture for 15 min­utes.

Heat the oven up to 180ºС. Loosen the yolk with 1 tbsp. l. water and grease the edges of the prod­uct. Bake a pie with sor­rel for 25–30 min­utes. Serve chilled.

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Omelet with sorrel

Cook­ing time: 15 min.

For 4 serv­ings:

• 1 bunch of sor­rel
• 1 bulb
• 20 g but­ter
• 3 eggs
• 100 ml milk
• salt pep­per

Rinse the sor­rel, sort and dry. Pre­pared sor­rel blanch in boil­ing salt­ed water for 5 min­utes, put on a sieve, squeeze well and chop fine­ly.

Peel the onion, chop and fry in a pan in hot oil until trans­par­ent. Lay the sor­rel on the onion and cook for 3 min­utes.

Whisk eggs with milk, salt and pep­per to taste. Pour the sor­rel with the egg mass and cook until the edges of the prod­uct are browned.

Trans­fer the fin­ished omelet to a plate and serve with fresh veg­eta­bles, pour­ing with melt­ed but­ter.