Frankfurt's cold green sauce blends exactly seven herbs with soured cream, poured over halved boiled eggs and potatoes. It is a main course here, not a condiment, and the city argues about every family's ratio.

Grüne Soße belongs to Frankfurt the way pesto belongs to Genoa. The canonical seven herbs are borage, sorrel, garden cress, chervil, chives, parsley and salad burnet, most of them grown in the Oberrad district, which styles itself the city's herb garden. Legend ties the sauce to Goethe's mother, and the city now stages a week-long Grüne Soße Festival each May where restaurant versions compete on the Roßmarkt. Season traditionally opens around Maundy Thursday, when the first bundled herb packets appear at the markets.

Where to eat Grüne Soße in Frankfurt

4 editor picks for Grüne Soße in Frankfurt, ranked by editorial score. All Frankfurt signature dishes · Grüne Soße across every city.

  • Apfelwein Wagner

    Order Grüne Soße with boiled eggs and fried potatoes, €14.50

    Apfelwein Wagner is the Sachsenhausen tavern Frankfurt sends first-timers to, pouring its own Ebbelwoi beside Grüne Soße plates daily since 1931.

    DetailsDirections

  • Zum Gemalten Haus

    Order The prize-recipe Grüne Soße the house is locally known for

    Zum Gemalten Haus keeps the painted-parlour version of Frankfurt tavern culture alive on Schweizer Strasse, with Bembel service running since 1936.

    DetailsDirections

  • Gasthaus Zur Sonne

    Order Frankfurter Schnitzel with the seven-herb Grie Soß, then Apfelstrudel

    Gasthaus Zur Sonne has stood at the top of Frankfurt's Berger Straße for over 250 years, a half-timbered Bornheim tavern with a big chestnut garden.

    DetailsDirections

  • Edel's Hausmannskost (Kleinmarkthalle)

    Try Grüne Soße with eggs, ladled at a market stand

    Edel's Hausmannskost dishes Grüne Soße and Hessian home cooking from stand 24 of Frankfurt's Kleinmarkthalle, the fastest honest lunch in the centre.

    DetailsDirections

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Make it at home

Serves Serves 41 hrEasy

Ingredients

  • 200g mixed fresh herbs: borage, sorrel, cress, chervil, chives, parsley, salad burnet in roughly equal parts
  • 300g sour cream
  • 200g plain yoghurt or schmand
  • 1 tablespoon mustard
  • 1 tablespoon neutral oil
  • Juice of half a lemon
  • 8 eggs
  • 800g waxy potatoes
  • Salt, black pepper, a pinch of sugar

Method

  1. Wash the herbs, strip any tough stalks, and chop them very finely by hand or pulse briefly in a food processor without turning them to paste.
  2. Stir the herbs through the sour cream and yoghurt with the mustard, oil and lemon juice. Season with salt, pepper and a pinch of sugar.
  3. Rest the sauce in the fridge for at least 30 minutes so the herbs perfume the cream.
  4. Boil the eggs for 9 minutes and the potatoes until tender. Halve the eggs.
  5. Serve the cold sauce generously over the warm halved eggs with the potatoes alongside.

Editor tip. Never blend the herbs smooth; the sauce should be speckled and rough. Missing burnet or borage is forgivable, dried herbs are not.

Common allergens: Egg, Milk.