Sopa de Ajo Castellana

Castilian Garlic Soup recipe, easy, economic and energetic!

Aug 25, 2007 Angeles Fernández

This typical Spanish Garlic Soup (Sopa de Ajo) recipe is very popular in Castilla y León, Spain. Every province has its own recipe. Find out how it is cooked in Burgos.

Garlic Soup is very common in lots of areas around the world. In Spain, it is more common in northern areas and its origins are very humble. In rural places, Sopa de Ajo was taken some three hours after breakfast, to recover from hard work and cold weather. It used to be cooked using some types of meat or fat but today these two ingredients are not used nowadays. You can find below the typical recipe cooked in Burgos (Castilla y León – Spain):

Ingredients:

  • Water
  • 5 Garlic cloves.
  • Olive Oil
  • 2-3 pinches of Salt
  • One or two days-old bread in slices. The typical bread used for this soup in Burgos is “hogaza” a big rounded bread.
  • 1 egg.
  • Sweet paprika, hot paprika, or both!
  • 1 dried red pepper (optional)

Directions:

  1. Add water to a saucepan (some 2 litres), the salt, 2 spoonfuls of olive oil, the dried pepper and 4 garlic cloves in thin slices. Bring it to boil.
  2. Meanwhile, cut the bread into pieces, not very big, not very small.
  3. When garlic slices had been boiling until they are tender, add the pieces of old bread and let it boil. (To know if garlic is ready, take one slice from the saucepan and try with a fork. It the slice of garlic is tender, it’s cooked).
  4. Prepare a small frying pan and poor some olive oil on it (not very much, maybe 1 teaspoon will be enough).
  5. When the oil is hot, add 1 garlic clove previously cut in very, very small slices.
  6. Let them fry until they take a brown color, but be careful, don’t let them get burned, as they would give this soup a very bitter flavour!
  7. When garlic on the frying pan is brown, add some paprika or cayenne pepper, the one you prefer. Don’t add too much. Just the quantity you can take on the tip of the knife.
  8. Stir for a short time, after having removed the frying pan from heat, so that paprika (or cayenne) does not burn.
  9. Add a little bit of water on it and poor this mixture on the saucepan, covering the already boiled garlic and bread.
  10. Remove the saucepan from heat.
  11. Bit the egg and add it to the saucepan, stirring at the same time, until you see the bitten egg becomes solid, dissolved in the soup.
  12. Let it stand some minutes and the garlic soup is ready!

Tips:

We, at home, also add some chopped green pepper to the boiling garlic with bread. Other times, we add some slices of mushroom, but this just depends on your preferences.

¡Buen provecho!

The copyright of the article Sopa de Ajo Castellana in Mediterranean Cuisine is owned by Angeles Fernández. Permission to republish Sopa de Ajo Castellana in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
Garlic, main ingredient for this Spanish soup, Jay, Freephotos.com Garlic, main ingredient for this Spanish soup