Spanish Garlic Soup - Sopa de Ajo Recipe - Bread and Garlic Soup

hello this is chef john from food wishes comm with spanish garlic soup that's right I'm doing my take on the famous SOPA de Ajo and you hear the term rustic thrown around these days very loosely but here the term rustic completely appropriate this is the epitome of a comforting homey rustic meal and by the way for all you starving students that keep emailing me for super cheap easy recipes this is about as good as it gets so here we go so even though this is called a garlic soup it really is first and foremost a bread soup and I like to prep my bread in the oven not in a pan so I'm going to cube up some day-old bread put it on a sheet pan we're gonna drizzle that liberally with olive oil traditionally this bread is cooked in olive oil in the actual pan you're making the soup but I think the oven method works much better and we're going to throw that in a 350 degree oven for about 15 or 20 minutes until it's crispy and barely golden brown we're not really looking to get a lot of color on there we just want it completely dried out and kind of crunchy let's get some audio verification there we go alright so our bread is prepped we're gonna simply set that aside and go on to the garlic so we're gonna go over to the stove and in a heavy-bottomed pot I'm gonna add about a quarter cup of good olive oil and then a ton of thinly sliced garlic and by the way look at the cuts on those do you know how hard it is to cut that much garlic that perfectly thin super hard which is why I did not do it I used a Japanese vegetable slicer works perfectly look at that so I suggest one of those you can certainly do it with a knife some people actually use a potato peeler but anyway you're gonna slice up a ton of garlic and we're gonna sizzle that on a medium heat until it's just barely golden so get it to start sizzling like that then maybe back the heat down to medium low and just watch it stir it wait until it looks exactly like that see that it's just barely golden at that point we're gonna add some diced ham if you can find Spanish ham use it it's amazing this was just some thinly sliced black forest ham that I diced up works perfectly fine I'm gonna give that about a 1 minute stir in that hot garlic oil and then we're gonna add the paprika the signature spice of this soup and of course the amount is taste so I throw in a couple teaspoons some people put less some people put more that's one of your jobs here is to figure out how much paprika so I'm gonna stir that paprika in with the ham and the garlic oil for about a minute and then we're gonna go ahead and toss in our toasted bread and we're gonna give it a toss in that unbelievably flavorful oil can you imagine that oil with all that garlic paprika and ham it is almost too much to think about just an amazing foundation of flavor to build this soup from all right once the bread is coated in that olive oil we're gonna go ahead and pour in our stock I'm using chicken stock we're gonna raise the heat up to high we want to bring this up to a boil all right and while that's happening I'm gonna go ahead and season this up a little bit I'm gonna put in a little pepper I know it's gonna need some salt and a little bit of cayenne and of course we'll taste it adjust for that later and as this comes up to temperature you're gonna have to gauge whether you need to add more liquid or not now this is supposed to be thick but mine was looking a little too thick so I added another splash so definitely a soup you're gonna need to adjust by the way do not even think of skimming off that unbelievable garlic paprika oil that comes to the top that is critical there are areas in Spain where you can literally be jailed for throwing that away in fact you're lucky if all they do is put you in jail okay so don'ts getting that stuff at that point we're gonna turn the heat down to medium and add some freshly chopped to tell you parsley and then the last step for this soup is to poach a couple eggs on the surface which reminds me make sure you taste it for seasoning now because it's hard to season and stir with the eggs in there but at this point I determine mine was perfect I'm gonna take my freakishly small wooden spoon and make a couple depressions and then I'm gonna slowly slide in a couple eggs I like to transfer them from ramekins in case they break when you take them out of the shell and by the way the amount of soup you see here is enough for four people but I'm only making two portions and what I'll do is I'll heat up the leftovers and poach two more eggs on there but you do have plenty of room to poach for if you want all right after we slide those in we're gonna cover it and we're just gonna let that cook on medium until they're poached and here we have my under the lid camera just pretend and those eggs are gonna cook in that steaming soup and it is an amazing thing so anyway cook it cover it on medium alright just like you're making poached eggs for breakfast the whites should be set the yolks should be runny all right if you want to splash a little that hot stock or hot peppery coil over the top that can I'll finish the process it's up to you do your soup and when you determine those eggs are cooked to your liking you're gonna serve this up and then as far as serving goes you can just scoop this all out you could just lay all this into a bowl and start eating but if possible what I like to do is try to get some soup into the bowl first so I can place that egg on top I think it looks much cooler for presentation and then to finish I'm gonna drizzle over a couple of drops of olive oil that's really more of a blessing than anything a little bit of cayenne for good luck a little more fresh Italian parsley and that is just one of the world's great bowl of soups and one of history's great garlic delivery systems all right and of course we're gonna need to taste this and if there's any children in the room be careful we're about to show some extreme spoon on yoke action and for the first bite I'm just gonna go yolk paprika garlic oil oh man that was beyond delicious this is the kind of soup that just causes happiness from the inside out it really is more than food and of course there's a million version some have bigger chunks of bread some have smaller chunks of bread some people use bread crumbs some people use raw bread there's really no wrong way to make this as long as you got tons of garlic olive oil bread and hopefully a couple poached eggs on top you're in business so I really really hope you give this a try head over to food wishes calm for all the ingredient amounts and more info as usual and as always enjoy you

Channel: Food Wishes

Views: 2,568,932

Rating: 4.9057999 out of 5

Keywords: Sopa, de, Ajo, Garlic, Soup, Spanish, Bread, chef, john, Food, Cooking, Cooking (science), Kitchen, Recipe, Recipes, appetizer, eggs, poached, egg, Egg (food)

Id: fixHiTWKRWA

Length: 6min 2sec (362 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 18 2013

Reddit Comments

[u/TheVenetianMask]

As a Spaniard, I can confirm this is delicious.

[u/GetOffMyLawn_]

"garlic delivery system"

[u/eagrbeavr]

I used to frequent a restaurant in Asbury, NJ called Spain Inn. Most amazing Sopa de Ajo I've ever had! I now live in San Diego and have yet to meet someone who has even heard of "garlic soup." They usually look at me like I'm weird and say "ewwww." They have no idea...

[u/polyethylene108]

I make Sopa de Ajo often. It's a beautiful soup and well worth trying. Play with the flavours. And add your own touches. It also freezes well and is wonderful on a cold winter's day with some fresh bread.

Edit: I a letter.

[u/ASlyGuy]

Is there some trick to getting the egg to stay on top? Mine sank down as soon as I put it in (which I did very gently). Did I make my soup too thin or something?

[u/cremebo]

oh dear god take me now

this is at the top of my list of things to try now

[u/Insane_Drako]

I would like to thank you for making me discover Food Wishes and Chef John! I've been watching his videos nonstop since Friday night, made awesome food on Saturday and again tonight.

He's now my second favorite chef =)

[u/BruceSoup]

Made this this weekend. I can confirm it is absolutely amazing/cheap/filling.

[u/ASlyGuy]

Where do you find a Japanese vegetable slicer? I keep seeing these pop up in cooking clips and I can't find one anywhere. Seem hella useful.