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Every admirer of sorrel or “green” borscht is unlikely to deny himself the pleasure of enjoying his favorite dish not only during the sorrel season, but also in cold winter. All you need to do for this is to prepare sorrel for the winter on your own. This is easy to do at home by following the tips and tricks below.
Preparation of ingredients
Regardless of the chosen method of harvesting greens, the leaves should be prepared for processing in the same way: the sorrel is sorted out, throwing out rotten or damaged by insects leaves, washed with cold water and dried. If desired, you can immediately cut the leaves for ease of later use.
In addition to the sorrel itself, you will need coarse salt and all kinds of additives: green onions, spices, lemon juice (if you decide to preserve or pickle the leaves).
Video “A simple recipe for canned sorrel”
From this video you will learn a simple recipe for canning sorrel for the winter.
Simple Recipes
Along with freezing, which is popular today, there are a number of simple recipes for harvesting sorrel, which were successfully used by our grandmothers. They are good because they do not require significant effort, they retain the product and all its useful trace elements for a long time.
In own juice
For this recipe, only sorrel itself is needed, preferably young leaves. The cooking technology is as follows:
- prepare jars and lids – wash and sterilize;
- we cut the washed and dried sorrel leaves, send them to a dry frying pan;
- over medium heat, warm the greens until it changes color and releases juice;
- We shift the hot mass into jars and cork.
With greens
You can roll sorrel not only by itself, the best vitamin pickles are obtained by adding other greens to sour leaves – parsley, dill or green onions. To prepare a liter jar of a classic vitamin mixture, you will need:
- sorrel – 750 g;
- green onion – 200 g;
- dill – 15 g;
- parsley greens – 5 g;
- water – 0,3 l.
My prepared greens, cut and put in a saucepan. Add to the mixture 1 tbsp. l. salt and pour in water, put on a small fire. Bring the green mass to a boil and boil for about 10 minutes. Immediately lay out in jars and sterilize for about 25 minutes. Now we cork the jars with seaming lids, leave them in warm water until they cool completely. Sorrel, canned with herbs and onions, is ready!
With citric acid
Another interesting canning method, which makes an excellent preparation for making soups, purees or fillings for pies. Before you start preserving sorrel in this way, the leaves must not only be washed and dried, but also passed through a meat grinder.
Of the required ingredients:
- 0,5 kg of sorrel leaves;
- 1 tsp citric acid.
We spread the sorrel puree in a saucepan, send it to the stove and simmer over low heat for about 10 minutes. At the end of cooking, add citric acid, mix thoroughly. We lay out the finished puree in sterilized jars, roll up and wrap until completely cooled.
Without salt
Canning sorrel in this way allows you to do without salt. Jars with blanks are perfectly stored without sterilization, there is no need to add vinegar – the natural acid of the leaves ensures their durability.
Pre-prepared sorrel is placed in clean jars, tamping it tightly. We put the filled containers with herbs in a pot of boiling water so that the boiling water covers the jars up to the neck. It is important to monitor how the sorrel “behaves”: as soon as the leaves begin to settle under the influence of temperature, you should add up to a full jar.
As soon as the oxalic juice rises to the level of the neck of the jar, the workpiece can be removed and closed with tight nylon lids. Cool the greens at room temperature and send to a dark, cool place.
Freezing rules
Many people prefer to freeze vitamin leaves – this method of harvesting is as simple as possible. All you need to do is send the green mass to the freezer. But even here there are some subtleties so that the frozen sorrel will meet your expectations.
Before freezing whole or chopped sorrel, it must be washed and dried. Next, the greens are laid out in portioned bags or containers, making sure that all the air comes out of the package. It is better to freeze the leaves in such portions that each of them is enough for exactly one preparation.
Drying Tips
Along with salting, drying is one of the oldest methods of harvesting sorrel leaves. You can dry the herbs naturally or with an electric dryer. In the first case, the leaves are tied in small bunches and placed in the air in the shade. It is important that all the leaves dry out evenly, and the sun’s rays do not fall on the greens. Pre-cut leaves are placed in an electric dryer.
The finished product has a dark green tint, easily rubbed into powder with fingers. It is important to remember that dried sorrel, unlike salted sorrel, has a specific taste, so before harvesting a large batch of greens, you should make sure that you like the taste of dishes based on it. Such sorrel should be stored in tightly closed glass jars to avoid moisture ingress.
Vitamin-rich sorrel is good not only for making traditional borscht – it is used for spicy pies as a filling, used during roasting meat rolls, and even for delicious mashed soups. A jar of greens, stocked up by a zealous hostess in the summer, will definitely come in handy in the winter, and your household will only be grateful to you.