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Schavel (Sorrel) re-grows year after year. In Russia and Ukraine, sorrel is called shchavel’ (щавель). Shchaveloviy borscht or Green borsch is a classic Ukrainian sorrel soup – we serve it hot with a dollop of sour cream or mayo.
You can make this sorrel soup with pork or vegetarian using a good broth. It also freezes well so you can enjoy this soup in winter. My mom grows Shchavel in her yard and it’s currently flourishing – time to make soup! If you have a yummy recipe with sorrel, I’d love to hear from you!
Ingredients for Sorrel Soup:
14 cups water
(if not using pork, you will need 8 cups water plus 6 cups chicken broth)
2 large Pork Loin Chops or 1 pound chicken breasts, sliced or diced
1 Tbsp salt
4-5 medium potatoes (any kind will work), diced
1 medium onion, finely diced
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 large eggs, lightly beaten with a fork
2 Bay Leaves
3 Tbsp Dill (fresh or frozen)
4 cups fresh Schavel, packed, rinsed and chopped (or use 3 cups chopped, frozen Shchavel)
Sour cream or mayo to serve
How to Make Sorrel Borscht:
1. Fill a large pot with 14 cups water (or water plus chicken broth if not using pork) and bring it to a boil. Next, add the meat, 1 Tbsp of salt and simmer pork partially covered for 30 minutes (or chopped chicken for 10 minutes – I used chicken this time). Use a spoon to skim off any impurities that rise to the top.
2. After meat is done cooking, add diced potatoes, 2 bay leaves and lightly boil 15 minutes or until potatoes can be pierced with a fork.
3. While potatoes are cooking, saute 1 diced onion in 2 Tbsp olive oil over medium heat until golden brown and add to the pot with the soup.
4. Next, lightly beat 2 eggs together and stir them in to the pot.
5. When potatoes are cooked through, stir in Shchavel (Sorrel) and Dill. Return pot to a boil and simmer additional 3-5 minutes or until sorrel is soft. Adding more sorrel (щавель) will make your soup/borscht more sour.
Serve hot with an optional dollop of sour cream or mayo.
Shchavel Borscht (Sorrel Soup)
Ingredients
- 14 cups water
- if not using pork, you will need 8 cups water plus 6 cups chicken broth
- 2 large Pork Loin Chops or 1 pound chicken breasts, sliced or diced
- 1 Tbsp salt
- 4-5 medium potatoes, any kind will work, diced
- 1 medium onion, finely diced
- 2 Tbsp olive oil
- 2 large eggs, lightly beaten with a fork
- 2 Bay Leaves
- 3 Tbsp Dill, fresh or frozen
- 4 cups fresh Schavel, packed, rinsed and chopped (or use 3 cups chopped, frozen Shchavel)
- Sour cream or mayo to serve
Instructions
- Fill a soup pot with 14 cups water (or water plus chicken broth if not using meat ). Bring to a boil. Then, add meat, 1 Tbsp of salt and simmer pork partially covered for 30 minutes (or chicken for 10 minutes). Use a spoon to skim off any impurities that rise to the top.
- When the timer goes off on your meat, add diced potatoes, 2 bay leaves and lightly boil 15 minutes or until potatoes can be easily pierced with a fork.
- While potatoes are cooking, saute 1 diced onion in 2 Tbsp olive oil over medium heat until golden brown and add to the pot with the soup.
- Next, lightly beat 2 eggs together and stir them into the pot.
- When potatoes are cooked through, stir in Shchavel (Sorrel) and Dill. Return pot to a boil and simmer additional 3-5 minutes or until sorrel is soft. P.S. Adding more sorrel (шавель) will make your soup/borscht more sour.
- Serve hot with optional dollop of sour cream or mayo.
Where do you get your sorrel from? I tried growing it, with zero success. I also tried pickled one that they sell at the European grocery store….it’s not the same. This is one of my favorite soups, but I can’t find fresh sorrel in the US.
Hi Natalie! See my note in the blog above, my mom grows this in her garden.
Hey Natasha! I want to make this but I have a question – if I use chicken, do I still need to add the chicken broth?
Hi Diana, I would – otherwise it will be a little bland. If you were boiling the chicken with bones for several hours first to extract flavor then maybe, but just adding chicken won’t be enough.
I made this tonight with pork and used spinach + lemon juice since I can’t get sorrel where I live. I served it with toast, sour cream, and chopped hard-boiled eggs rather than stirring in the eggs. It was delicious! My son and I both went back for seconds. I had to add a lot more salt than the recipe called for but I’ll definitely be making it again!
I’m glad you loved the recipe, thank you for the feedback!
One of the great Ukrainian soups. A neighbour grows sorrel so I can make it just like it is traditionally enjoyed in Ukraine.
Yum! That’s so great! Thank you so much for sharing that with me.
I have been looking to make this soup for a long time but could never find sorrel. My friend actually was growing sorrel and I was able to use this for the recipe! I made pork broth in the instant pot the night before. Didn’t make too many changes, just some minced garlic and added more fresh dill. But, this soup was so good. I love how the sorrel melts in your mouth with that tangy sour taste. Best part, the soup was easy to make!
Hello Liz, thank you so much for your great review! I’m happy to know that you loved this recipe.
Hey Natasha it’s the guy on yt and I see raw chicken in a super large aluminum stock pot is that a super large aluminum stock pot
Hi Matthew, I have all of our favorite kitchen tools listed in our Amazon Shop.
Hi Natasha, love your recipes!
I just had some Schavel Green Borscht soup. What an amazing flavor. Terrific cold summer soup. Problem is finding sorrel that grows anywhere in southern Delaware. Can dried sorrel work?
Walter
Hi Walter, I haven’t tried that yet but I imagine that should also work. A couple of our readers have reported great results with using spinach and lemon juice also but I haven’t tried it myself. If you test it out, let me know how you liked it! 🙂
As far as I know per Mother-in -Law from Prussia. They grew their own Sorrel. She really made the best. Six cups of Fresh cut Sorrel. Adding raw bacon at the very end. So so good good. Add other ingredients as desired. The very best. Took some to a workplace and gave some to a client. She could not believe it! Had not had “SHIVAS” in such a long time. Main ingredient would be Sorrel Chopped and cooked light with bacon. May be served cold. Ummmmm
Thank you so much for sharing that with us! I hope you enjoy our version!
This is delicious. I have tasted shchavel soup before but this is my first time cooking it myself and it is a success! Thank you Natasha for this recipe.
You’re welcome! I’m so happy you enjoyed it, Cham!
Hi Natasha can I make this soup with no chicken or any meat in it ? I will make the chicken broth but can I omit breast or pork. I hate meat in my soup
Thank you!
Hi Jenya, it does add good flavor but should still work to omit.
Try raw bacon at the very end chopped just like the six cups of Sorrel.
Fabulous! Another way to get daily greens in our diet, but with a refreshingly different flavor. First time tasting щавель. Вкусный суп! (I’m a beginning Russian language студентка.) I stumbled across it our our local farmer’s market, being sold by a former Russian with proceeds going to her church. She told me soup was made from sorrel. YUM! Thanks for posting!!
You’re welcome, Becky! Thank you for that awesome review!
This spring, I ordered sorrel seeds from Russia and Ukraine via Amazon. And currently enjoying a great bowl of soup product of those seeds.
Thank you so much for sharing that with me. That’s so great.
Hi Natasha,
Thank you so much for identifying this soup for me. My Ukrainian mother-in-law always made it in summer and I always loved it but she could never explain in English what the ingredients were – and my husband did not know either.
At first i thought it was your other summer soup recipe – the one for the cold soup with ham and cucumbers – but then I saw this one and I know this it it! It has a distinct flavour from the sorrel leaves. I always wondered what they were.
Thanks you!
I’m so happy you discovered our recipe!! I hope you love it! Thank you for sharing that with me
I am Russian but born here. My mom, God rest her soul made the BEST Schav soup.Both hot and cold…. She used Mother`s Schav in a glass jar as a shortcut for fresh sorrel as a base for the soup, but now it is not available anywhere anymore it seems. Can using spinach and some lemon juice be used instead as a substitute?
Hi Natalie, thank you so much for sharing that with me! Yes, spinach and lemon juice are great substitutes. Several of our readers have reported great results!
Made this soup tonight. It was delicious!
I’m glad you love the recipe Nicole! Thanks for sharing!
This is such a delicious soup. I’ve made it three times now and we love it. Even the kids eat love it! Is it okay to freeze it?
Hi Amanda, I’m so glad you loved it!! I haven’t tried freezing it but I think that would work. Thank you for the wonderful review!
Great recipe! I buy canned sorrel in local Ukrainian store. Unfortunately, it is impossible to find fresh sorrel in America. I never stir beaten eggs in the soup. Serve with sour cream and chopped hard boiled eggs.
I’m glad you enjoy it Iryna! Thanks for sharing your review with other readers!
It’s pretty easy to grow, even if you have limited space!
I found fresh sorrel at our local farmers market last summer. I bought enough to use and freeze, so now I’m making the soup again in the middle of the winter. Yum!
I also use hard boiled eggs cut in circles, it just looks so much better this way than raw egg added into the soup.
Also, smb just told me Whole Foods has sorrell sometimes.
Natasha, we love your recipes! Thank you!
I’m glad to hear that, Olga. Thank you for your good comments and feedback!
I have been looking for this recipe. Mom made it, sorrel grew in our garden. The difference was she used chopped hard boiled eggs. Thanks. Looks easy enough!
You’re welcome Nonna! I hope you love it! Please let me know what you think!
looks great…..I use beef (chuck or flank steak) for my broth, I cheat and add a container of Campbells tomato soup, but to get “green borscht” I just add more and more beet leaves until it turns green….will try yours
Great suggestions Virginia! Please let me know what you think of the recipe when you decide to make it!
Can I use spinach instead of sorrel?
Hi Yelena, A couple of our readers have reported great results with using spinach and lemon juice but I haven’t tried it myself. If you test it out, let me know how you liked it! 🙂
Hello. Since I don’t like canned sorrel, I am using fresh spinach and fresh lemon juice. It turns out great!
Those are great substitutes! Thank you for sharing that with me!!
love this soup.Can I freeze my sorrel? If so how… Thanks Marilyn
Hi Marilyn, yes sorrel freezes really well! Rinse, dry and chop then store in containers or freezer safe ziploc bags in the freezer. Put them into your soup frozen – no need to thaw 🙂
Thanks, I will do that.just found sorrel at my local farmer’s market.
Madee the sorrel soup with chicken, I also made and added dumplings. Loved it with the sour cream addition too!! Yummy
Gail, thank you for such a nice review 😬
Gail, where did you buy sorrel?
Gail, where did you buy sorrel?