Spring has sprung and it's time for this writer to do a seasonal detox. Because of our move and general laziness I've been eating way too much garbage lately - chips, ice cream, bacon - you name it. The 10 lbs I'd lost since Christmas have been threatening to jump back on my hips.

Part of my detox is eating lots and lots of seasonal vegetables. In the South that means greens. Collards, to be exact, which were already growing in the vegetable garden of the house we bought. They are brilliant braised in olive oil with a little garlic and vinegar. I'm having some for breakfast, as a matter of fact.

Since I've been thinking about and eating greens, it occurred to me that the Russians probably have lots of recipes for cool-weather leaves, and not just for cabbage. So I've done a bit of research.

Sorrel seems to be a prominent green in Russian cooking. I've never tried sorrel, but apparently it has a bitter taste, although it is full of Vitamin C and can be very cleansing for the liver. Here's what Gardenguides.com has to say about sorrel:

Sorrel is an underutilized green in the US, and unjustifiably so. The leaves are very high in vitamin C and have many uses. Young, tender spring leaves can be used as a salad green, and are also used in Cream of Sorrel soup. Sorrel can be cooked like spinach and served with trout or salmon, or mixed in a few leaves with your cooked spinach or chard for a sharp, lemony flavor. Fresh leaves are used by some to soothe canker sores.

I found 2 Russian recipes using Sorrel:

(Cold Sorrel Soup) from recipezaar.com:

4 lbs sorrel
4 quarts water
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup sour cream
2 chopped scallions
4 sliced radishes
10 boiled new potatoes

Pick over and wash sorrel. Chop leaves very fine. Bring water to a rolling boil and drop in sorrel. Cook for 10 minutes. Cool. Serve in cold bowl with dollop of sour cream. Top with scallions and radishes and add potatoes.

Here's another one using Sorrel. Its name is either Summer Borscht or Weed Soup. I prefer Weed Soup!

10 cups water
3 pieces of farmer sausage, 6 inch pieces (or more)
1/2 cup chopped green onion tops
2 cups chopped fresh sorrel
1/3 cup fresh dill sprigs
3-4 medium potatoes, diced
3 sprigs parsley
1 bay leaf
8 peppercorns
salt
sour cream

To the water in a large soup pot, add the farmer sausage and cook for about 1 hour: this makes your soup stock.
Remove the pieces of sausage and let cool, then remove the casing and cut up into bit size pieces.
Add potatoes, onion greens, dill green, parsley, sorrel, bay leaf and peppercorns (in a spice bag or container) to the stock.
Cook this until potatoes are done.
Add the farmer sausage pieces back into the soup.
Add salt to taste.
Serve hot with heaping tablespoon of sour cream in each serving.
Good served with fresh homemade brown bread.
The farmer sausage can be substituted with a smoked ham hock.

Next post: sauerkraut!