[1][2][3][4][5] Varieties of the same soup include spinach, garden orache, chard, nettle, and occasionally dandelion, goutweed or ramsons, together with or instead of sorrel.

[1][2][3][6][7][8] It is known in Ashkenazi Jewish,[4] Belarusian,[7] Estonian, Hungarian, Latvian,[9] Lithuanian, Romanian, Armenian, Polish,[5] Russian[1][3] and Ukrainian[6][8] cuisines.

Its other English names, spelled variously schav, shchav, shav, or shtshav, are borrowed from the Yiddish language,[4] which in turn derives from Slavic languages, like for example Belarusian шчаўе, Russian and Ukrainian щавель, shchavel, Polish szczaw.

[11] In Polish, Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Russian cuisines, sorrel soup may be prepared using any kind of broth instead of water.

The "sorrel-sour" taste may disappear when sour cream is added, as the oxalic acid reacts with calcium and casein.