One of the soups that I remember fondly from my childhood is the Sorrel Soup with a hard-boiled egg. Sorrel, also known as, Spinach Dock, is a leafy garden vegetable, cultivated across Eastern Europe and mostly used in soups and sauces. It resembles spinach but is much more acidic in taste. I have never seen sorrel in any of the stores in the West, but maybe only because I wasn’t paying attention. The other day, though, when I was leafing through an old issue of my German food porn, I saw the recipe and the accompanying luscious photo of the cream of spinach soup with a boiled egg. The yummy memories of sorrel soup came back to me in waves, and since I couldn’t find sorrel in the supermarket (I will now be on the lookout), I decided to make the spinach soup version. Although I am not a huge spinach fan (correction, I like it raw, but not cooked), it seemed like this soup had it drowning in white wine and cream anyway, and how could that ever be a bad thing? After I made the soup, it turned out that I was very right, wine and cream can do no wrong. This soup must be one of the tastiest soups I ever made, it is very rich but at the same time, it is extremely satisfying. It sounds weird but when I eat this soup, I feel like it satiates some primal, deep-seated hunger in me.
Ingredients:
2 shallots, finely chopped
20g (0.7 oz) butter
100g (3.5 oz) fresh spinach
250g (1 cup) whipping cream
100ml (3.4 fl oz) white wine
400ml (13.5 fl oz) chicken or veggie broth
pepper
salt
4 eggs
In a large pot, fry the shallots in butter till translucent. Add white wine, broth and the cream and bring to a boil. Let it simmer till the liquid reduces by one third (about 10-15 minutes). Put the fresh spinach and the liquid in a food processor and process till smooth. Return the soup to the pot, season with salt and pepper and keep warm. Put the eggs in boiling water and let boil for 8 minutes, then remove from the heat and run under very cold water to stop the cooking process. Peel them carefully and cut off parts on the bottom (so that you can stand it flat on a surface of the soup plate) and the top (to expose the egg yolk). Pour the hot soup around the egg, season with pepper, garnish with chives and serve immediately.
Servings: 4 (about 175 kcal/portion)
Adapted from: Lust auf Genuss 11/2009
Yummy! Has anyone ever tried this recipe with kids who don’t want to eat their spinach soup
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Seems like we really do have similar tastes
Sorrel soup is my all time favorite. Whenever going back to Poland I get this question from my mum – so what should I cook for you? The answer is always same – sorrel soup 
What a gorgeous soup! I love the idea of adding a hard boiled egg.
Lovely! Spinach soup is just simmering in my kitchen while I’m writing this. Sorel soup reminds me of summers at my grandma’s place
Thanks for lovely recipe. Let’s see if my spinach-hating bf will enjoy it. I bet he will 
Sorrel soup reminds me of my childhood – the only difference is that we never processed the greens and the egg was added as a “wash”, creating little floating “rags”. Since moving to U.S. I have re-created the same soup with all kind of other greens but still the sorrel is the best, because of it’s wonderful acidity and “clean” taste.
I was able to buy sorrel here in States at Whole Foods Market – at least they have it here in San Diego, CA, not sure about the others.
This looks wonderful, thanks for sharing! But any lactose free suggestions to replace the cream?
Thank you for all of your comments, this soup really is great, I just made it again two days ago. Still yummy
@Karolina: Let me know how it worked out with the boyfriend
@hot chef: not sure about replacements for the cream, but you could probably skip the cream, add more broth and more spinach (it won’t be creamy), but it will hopefully be tasty. And if you want to thicken the soup you could use some potato flour (that’s how my mom used to do it back in the day).
Wow, that sounds like one satisfying soup – I shall be bookmarking this one
I have just cooked this soup – it’s sooooo simple yet soooooo delicious