Green Soup with Sorrel, Egg, and Chicken

Cooking method

1. Step 1:

   

   How do you make green soup with sorrel and egg? Start by cooking the broth. How do you cook the broth? Cover the chicken with water, bring it to a boil, and drain off this first broth.

2. Step 2:

   

   Wash the pot and cover the chicken again with clean water. You don't have to drain the first broth — that's up to you, and it doesn't affect the flavor of the soup. But with the second broth, the soup comes out less greasy. Bring it back to a boil and skim off the foam with a slotted spoon. Reduce the heat to its lowest setting. The more gently the broth simmers, the clearer it will be.

3. Step 3:

   

   While the chicken cooks, prepare the rest of the ingredients for the green soup. Wash and peel three large potatoes and one onion. Rinse the millet with water. You can replace the millet in this soup with rice. Don't use too much grain or the soup will turn out too thick — two level tablespoons for three liters of liquid is enough.

4. Step 4:

   

   Pick over one large bunch of sorrel, rinse it under running water, and remove the tough parts of the stems. This makes the soup more delicate.

5. Step 5:

   

   Cook the chicken broth for about an hour, then strain it so it's clean, with no small bits of chicken bone. Separate the chicken meat from the bones, pull it into pieces, and set it aside for now. Top up the broth with a little boiled water to replace what evaporated during cooking.

6. Step 6:

   

   Cut the potatoes into small cubes.

7. Step 7:

   

   Add the diced potatoes and the rinsed millet (or rice) to the pot of chicken broth. Cook for 10 minutes.

8. Step 8:

   

   Finely chop the onion and add it to the soup. You can sauté the onion a little in vegetable oil first (I make the soup without sautéing). Cook for another 5–10 minutes.

9. Step 9:

   

   Finely chop the sorrel. Like any leafy green, sorrel cooks very quickly. To keep as many of its vitamins as possible, add it to the green soup at the very last moment, once the other vegetables are done. The same goes for frozen and canned sorrel. Frozen sorrel doesn't need to be thawed before going into the soup.

10. Step 10:

    

    Add the bay leaf, peppercorns (or allspice), and a little less than half a tablespoon of salt to the green soup. Return the cooked chicken meat to the soup. If you've decided to add a raw egg, do it now: crack it into a mug, beat it lightly, and pour it into the soup in a thin stream while stirring constantly with a spoon. If you like, you can also add finely chopped dill, parsley, or spinach. Cook the soup for another two minutes, then turn off the heat.

11. Step 11:

    

    The egg plays a very important role in green sorrel soup. It's added either raw or boiled. In our family, we add a chopped boiled egg to each bowl of soup individually when serving. A half of a boiled egg in the bowl looks more attractive than the white wisps you get from adding raw egg while the soup cooks.