Sorrel is a highly nutritious and flavorsome herb that has recently found its way back in our recipes owing to awareness about its benefits spreading up like fire. Essentially it is a perennial herb that belongs to the family of Polygonaceae. Some of you might have heard of it by the names narrow-leaved dock or spinach dock. The sorrel herb is known for adding tantalizing flavor and sorrel benefits to your salads, soups, stew and many more recipes.
Nutritional Facts
Sorrel Leaves are highly abundant in Vitamin C and Vitamin A, along with small percentages of Calcium and Iron as well. Below are the nutritional facts about the sorrel herb.
| Vitamin A | 80% | Vitamin C | 80% |
| Calcium | 4% | Iron | 13% |
| Vitamin D | 0% | Vitamin B-6 | 5% |
| Vitamin B-12 | 0% | Magnesium | 25% |
Health Benefits of Sorrel Herb
The pointed Sorrel leaves contain in themselves a whole load of health benefits. Even the dried sorrel or the sorrel flower finds multiple uses and health benefits.
1. Prevent Scurvy
Being extremely rich in Vitamin C, Sorrel herb is known for its ability to avoid the disease Scurvy.
2. Blood Pressure and Inflammation Regulation
Sorrel is also valued and recommended for inflammations(1), diet recovery and as a refreshment drink to chill your spirits. Dried Sorrel or Sorrel Flowers are used to prepare the sorrel juice. It regulates blood pressure due to the presence of potassium in it which controls fluid balance.
[Read: Natural Tips To Treat Inflammation ]
3. Prevent Cancer
It is also said that sorrel leaves got used as an ingredient in Essiac, an herbal mixture, used to cure cancer. Sorrel benefits us as a cure for cancer, as it is very rich in antioxidants which is instrumental in neutralizing free radicals in our body and avoiding them from harming healthy cells.
[Read: Natural Tips To Cure Cancer ]
4. Eyesight Booster
Large quantities of Vitamin A in Sorrel help boost your eyesight miraculously. Sorrel also found its uses in reducing macular degeneration and cataracts.
5. Builds Immunity
Building strong body immunity is one of how sorrel benefits us. It has an appropriate blend of most useful nutrients in the right amount. Vitamin C acts as the essential element in immunity development through sorrel herb.
6. Kidney Health
Sorrel seeds stimulate urination by removing unnecessary toxins and salts in the kidney, thus resulting in a cleaner Kidney. It can also dissolve some percentage of fat from the Kidney.
DIY Sorrel Recipes
Knowing that Sorrel benefits us in significant ways and contains a great deal of nutritional power, trying out its delicious recipes makes sense. It gets better with the fact that all of the methods that we will list down here taste amazing. It will be hard for you to resist the sorrel taste once you try out one of these yourself at home.
Potato Salad
Savor the delectable sorrel taste dressed with tangy wine vinegar in the German-Style potato salad, tossed with fresh sorrel leaves.
Ingredients:
- 6 Potatoes
- One portion of fresh Sorrel Leaves
- 1 Banana shallot
- 30ml/1¼fl oz olive oil
- 25ml/1fl oz vinegar
- Two thyme sprigs
- Salt to taste
Procedure:
- Boil the potatoes in a pan until wholly boiled
- Add a pinch of salt in the boiling water for the potatoes to soak some salt
- Fry the shallot in a pan in 10 ml of olive oil, until it turns transparent and soft
- Then add vinegar and heat until the portion reduces to half
- Remove the pan from flame and add the remaining olive oil into the pan
- Then toss thyme leaves into the pan
- Place the potatoes on a plate and dress them with sorrel leaves and soaked in the shallot
- Add more salad leaves and spread the remaining shallot on top of the salad
French Style Sorrel Soup
A creamy blend of nutrition and flavor, this recipe is soaked with sorrel benefits.
Ingredients
- Four spoons of unsalted butter
- 1/2 a cup of chopped green onions
- 4-6 cups full of freshly cut sorrel
- Salt
- Three spoons of white flour
- One ¼ of chicken stock or vegetable stock
- Two egg yolks
- 1/2 cup of cream
Procedure:
- Fry the green onions in three spoons of melted butter on medium heat in a pan
- Cover the lid and let them cook for 10 minutes
- Simmer the vegetable or chicken broth in another pot
- Then increase the heat and add all the chopped sorrel leaves with a pinch of salt to taste
- After the sorrel leaves are wilted, lower the heat to medium-low and cook for another 10 minutes
- Stir the gravy occasionally
- Then add the flour and cook for 3 minutes on medium heat
- Don’t whisk the egg yolks and cream together
- For best results, keep pouring a little soup with one hand while you whisk the eggs using the other hand
- Then pour the entire whisked mixture of soup, eggs, and cream into the sorrel soup pot
- Cook lightly for another 5 minutes
Sorrel Tea
Although Sorrel tea is readily available nowadays in the market under different brand names and can be made in the traditional tea style, here we present you another interesting iced sorrel tea recipe that will charm you. It is the Caribbean style sorrel tea made using dried sorrel.
Ingredients
- Nine oz dried sorrel
- Three teaspoons of grated ginger
- Three strips of dried orange zest
- One white clove
- One ¼ of water
- 2/3 cup of white or brown sugar
- Ice-cubes
Procedure
- Add dried sorrel, ginger, white clove and orange zest in a bowl.
- Add boiling water and sugar to this mixture
- Stir it well and let it sit overnight
- Strain the mixture and discard the solids
- Serve over Ice
Precautionary Note
It is important to note that Sorrel must be consumed in moderate amounts to leverage its benefits in the right way. Although sorrel herb has medicinal properties, it is always good to restrain from extremes. Also, patients suffering from Kidney stones should avoid it. Sorrel tastes best when cooked in vessels other than cast iron or aluminum.
Bottom Line
The best way to leverage the sorrel benefits to incorporate it into your diet through one of the many delicious recipes. Prevention is better than cure, and this ingredient in your recipes will serve as the key to your healthy immune system.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Are Hibiscus and Sorrel the Same?
Dried Hibiscus flowers are called Sorrel in Jamaica.
2. Can You Eat Fresh Sorrel?
Fresh sorrel leaves are incorporated in a lot of recipes and as salads. However, it must get consumed in an appropriate amount.
3. What Does Sorrel Taste Like?
Sorrel has a tangy or sour taste due to a large quantity of Vitamin C in it.
