How to make sorrel and wild garlic vegetable soup

The lemony hit of sorrel provides a perfect pick-me-up for dishes during early spring, bringing a fresh, zingy dimension to vegetable soup

Frond farewell: keep the leafy trim from the fennel and celery to use as garnish (Julia Platt Leonard)

Sorrel has a lemony kick that can lift other ingredients beautifully. Like citrus, it too is high in vitamin C. It’s also a great source of vitamin A.

It isn’t everyone’s cup of tea – some find the acidity too sharp and lip-puckering. But paired with a piece of fish or tucked inside an omelette, it’s a dream.

Sorrel is an early springtime arrival which you can grow easily or find at farmer’s markets. Matched with wild garlic – another spring find – it gives humble vegetable soup an extra dimension. This soup is light and fresh and vegan.

Ideally, look for celery that has the leaves still attached at the top. They’re gorgeous chopped and tossed into the soup at the end. But if you can’t, you can substitute chopped parsley. Also, look for fennel with the fronds on top – they make a great garnish.

Stir in the wild garlic at the end, taste before serving and add additional chopped leaves if you want more of a garlic hit. The sorrel is made into an oil which you drizzle before serving.

I blanch some of the leaves quickly to soften, but leave the rest raw. This keeps the colour vibrant and preserves more of the sharp, citrus notes.

This soup is thick so go lightly when you add the water to the vegetables. You can always add more later if you want to thin it out slightly.

(Julia Platt Leonard)

Sorrel and wild garlic vegetable soup

Serves 4

1 medium red or yellow onion, diced
1 carrot, diced
2 stalks celery, with leaves if possible
1 fennel bulb, with fronds if possible
1 medium courgette, diced
10 leaves of wild garlic 
40g sorrel leaves, stems removed
50ml olive oil + a few tbsp 

Add a few tablespoons of olive oil to a saucepan and warm over medium heat. Add the onions, cover the pan and sweat the onions gently until they are soft and translucent, but not browned. Add the carrots and cook for a few more minutes. Dice the celery, reserving the celery leaves if you have them. Also dice the fennel and reserve any fronds. Add the celery and fennel and cook for another few minutes. Add the chopped courgette, stir to coat and add water so the vegetables are not quite covered.

While the vegetables are cooking, wash the sorrel leaves and spin dry. Blanch 25g of the leaves in boiling water for only a few seconds. Drain and refresh under cold water. Squeeze out the water and blitz in a blender with the olive oil. Coarsely chop the remaining leaves and add to the blender and blitz again until smooth. Taste and add salt and pepper to season.

Stack the garlic leaves on top of each other, roll them up and slice them thinly into strips. Chop the celery leaves. When the courgettes are just tender, stir in the garlic and celery leaves. If you don’t have celery leaves, stir in some chopped parsley. Taste and adjust the seasoning. Serve the soup with a healthy drizzle of the sorrel oil and decorate with some of the fennel fronds.

@juliapleonard