Of sausages, sauerkraut and sorrel

I had opened a jar of sauerkraut the other day and was pondering what to do with it. I still have some beets from my bumper Christmas organic box, and I started thinking about some borscht I once had that included both beets and sauerkraut.

But in looking for this recipe I stumbled upon several others for sauerkraut borscht which call for smoked sausages (like those St Gregor ones I have stashed in my freezer).

Which reminded me that borscht, to many of us, means a kind of beet soup, but that is a woefully limited view of a term that, like paella, can mean an almost infinite range of dishes under a common culinary umbrella.

Which led me to look further at the page I’d happened upon, which was a collection of Mennonite recipes. Last summer I made sorrel soup (here called Zummahborscht) out of some weeds I’d pulled at Haliburton Farm. The soup was delicious and lemony; the labour involved was a bit tedious, as I had to rinse and sort the leaves rather more than I would a grocery store bag of greens, but I think it was worth it and I’ll be volunteering for weeding duties again this year.