garden sorrel and orach soup is one of the most representative dishes of spring, full of vitamins, sour and energizing, just like a healthy food should be this season. whether you do it for lent or immediately following the holidays (when a light diet is necessary after culinary excesses), vegetable soup is always a good choice.
you can cook it simple, only with vegetables, or you can give it a festive appearance and a creamier taste, adding beaten egg and cream at the end.
the garden sorrel and orach soup is usually flavored with plenty of greens: parsley, dill, lovage and ramsons. and because it is spring, you can put a lot of green onion, both in preparation and for decor.
wash all the vegetables' leaves: garden sorrel, orach, spinach, ramsons, etc. (i didn't have garden sorrel, so i put beetroot leaves):
chop green onion:
put water to boil, add the chopped onion, 3 sliced medium carrots and 2 chopped celery stalks:
wash 4 tablespoons of rice and then add it to soup. put some salt.
chop the herbs' strains and add them to soup, let boil for 2-3 minutes.
when the rice is almost boiled, after about 10-12 minutes, place the vegetables. put the young leaves to the final, in the last minutes of boiling. you can add spinach and ramsons after turning off the fire, to keep their vitamins.
after the herbs have boiled for 2-3 minutes, add tomato juice and borsch.
let simmer over low heat for 5 minutes.
if you want to add cream with egg, then add this mixture to the final and let boil for 2 minutes.
put a little warm soup in the cream mixture and then pour it in the soup.
if you want the food to be for fasting days, do not add cream or egg, add only the chopped spinach and ramsons and turn off the fire.
mix well and then sprinkle parsley, dill and lovage (or celery leaves) finely chopped.
this is the cream version:
serve warm or cold with green onion:
you can add crushed garlic and black pepper in the sour cream version:
bon appetit!