Chef Lupita
Caldo de Mariscos Campechano
Campeche's chunky seafood chowder from the Gulf coast, built on toasted shrimp shells, charred tomato, recado rojo, and epazote, served family-style from a clay cazuela with lima agria and warm tortillas.
Culinary Explorer
A cooking platform built around craft, culture, and the stories behind what we eat.
Sopa de Coditos con Frijol Negro
Created by
A Yucatecan weekday soup of elbow pasta toasted in lard and simmered in epazote-scented black bean broth, finished with crumbled queso sopero, a spoon of crema, and a squeeze of lima agria.
Soups & Stews
Mexican
Weeknight
Budget Friendly
Comfort Food
15 min
Active Time
1 hr 30 min cook•1 hr 45 min total
Yield6 servings
This soup is from Yucatan. Not from Mexico the abstraction, from Yucatan the peninsula, where black bean broth is the household pantry and lima agria sits in a bowl on every table. In Merida and Valladolid this is a Monday soup, a Tuesday soup, the soup a senora makes when the pot of frijol colado from Sunday is still half full and she needs to stretch it into dinner. Nothing is wasted. The bean broth becomes the second meal, and the coditos become the second day.
The pasta is toasted in manteca de cerdo before it touches a drop of liquid. That is the step that turns a bowl of boiled pasta and beans into a sopa aguada yucateca. The lard browns the coditos, the sofrito of onion, garlic, and tomato perfumes the fat, and the bean broth carries it all into something that tastes like a kitchen in Merida at midday. The epazote is not garnish. It is structure. So is the whole habanero floating in the pot. It is not there to make the soup spicy. It is there to make it smell like Yucatan.
The finish is the senora's signature: crumbled queso sopero, a spoonful of crema de rancho, sliced habanero on the side for the brave, and a half of lima agria, the bumpy, fragrant Yucatecan lime that tastes like nothing else on earth. Squeeze it over the bowl right before you eat. Not before. Lima agria loses its perfume the moment it sits. Cada estado, su propia cocina, and this small bowl belongs to the peninsula. No me vengas con atajos.
The Yucatan Peninsula's culinary identity sits apart from central Mexico, shaped by centuries of Maya foodways, Caribbean trade routes, and a 19th-century Lebanese immigration that brought wheat-based ingredients into a corn-and-bean kitchen. Sopas aguadas, brothy pasta soups built on existing legume broths, became a peninsular weeknight staple after dried Italian-style pasta reached Yucatecan ports in the late 1800s; cooks folded the new ingredient into the older logic of stretching frijol colado across multiple meals. Lima agria (Citrus aurantiifolia variant), distinct from both Persian and Mexican lime, is grown almost exclusively on the peninsula and carries the floral, slightly bitter perfume that defines Yucatecan acidity, the same note that finishes sopa de lima, papadzules, and this humbler sopa de coditos.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
dried black beans
Quantity
1 pound
picked over and rinsed
water
Quantity
10 cups, plus more as needed
white onion
Quantity
1 medium
half left whole, half finely diced
head of garlic
Quantity
1
halved crosswise, plus 2 cloves finely chopped
fresh epazote
Quantity
2 large sprigs
manteca de cerdo (pork lard)
Quantity
2 tablespoons
Roma tomatoes
Quantity
2 medium
finely chopped
chile habanero
Quantity
1
left whole and pricked with a knife
kosher salt
Quantity
1 teaspoon, plus more to taste
dried elbow pasta (coditos)
Quantity
12 ounces
queso sopero or queso de bola (optional)
Quantity
4 ounces
crumbled or grated
crema de rancho (optional)
Quantity
1/2 cup
lima agria (optional)
Quantity
2
halved
sliced chile habanero (optional)
Quantity
for serving
hand-pressed corn tortillas (optional)
Quantity
for serving
warmed
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| dried black beanspicked over and rinsed | 1 pound |
| water | 10 cups, plus more as needed |
| white onionhalf left whole, half finely diced | 1 medium |
| head of garlichalved crosswise, plus 2 cloves finely chopped | 1 |
| fresh epazote | 2 large sprigs |
| manteca de cerdo (pork lard) | 2 tablespoons |
| Roma tomatoesfinely chopped | 2 medium |
| chile habaneroleft whole and pricked with a knife | 1 |
| kosher salt | 1 teaspoon, plus more to taste |
| dried elbow pasta (coditos) | 12 ounces |
| queso sopero or queso de bola (optional)crumbled or grated | 4 ounces |
| crema de rancho (optional) | 1/2 cup |
| lima agria (optional)halved | 2 |
| sliced chile habanero (optional) | for serving |
| hand-pressed corn tortillas (optional)warmed | for serving |
Equipment Needed
- •Heavy 6-quart pot for the beans
- •Wide skillet or shallow clay cazuela for toasting the pasta and building the soup
- •Sharp paring knife for pricking the habanero
- •Ladle and deep ceramic soup bowls for serving
Instructions
- 1
Cook the black beans
Place the rinsed black beans in a heavy pot with 10 cups of water, the whole half onion, and the halved garlic head. Bring to a boil, then drop the heat to a low simmer. Do not salt the beans yet. Salt at this stage tightens the skins and the beans cook unevenly. Simmer partially covered for about 75 minutes, until the beans are soft enough to crush between two fingers and the broth has turned a deep, glossy black.
The broth is the dish. Do not drain the beans. In Yucatan they call this caldo de frijol and it is the foundation of a dozen home soups. If the beans cook dry before they soften, add hot water, never cold. - 2
Finish the bean broth
When the beans are tender, fish out the spent onion half and the garlic head and discard them. Add the epazote sprigs and the whole pricked habanero to the pot. Season with the kosher salt. Simmer another 10 minutes so the epazote scents the broth and the habanero perfumes the pot without releasing its full heat. Taste the broth. It should taste like beans, like epazote, and only faintly of chile. If you bite the habanero by accident, that is your problem, not the soup's.
- 3
Toast the coditos in lard
In a wide skillet or cazuela, melt the manteca over medium heat. La manteca es el sabor. Add the dry elbow pasta and stir constantly for about 4 minutes, until the coditos turn a deep golden brown and smell nutty, like toasted almonds. This step is not optional. Toasting the pasta in lard before it touches liquid is what separates a sopa aguada from boiled pasta in bean water. Skip it and the soup will taste flat.
- 4
Build the sofrito
Push the toasted coditos to one side of the pan. In the cleared space, add the diced onion and chopped garlic. Cook for 2 minutes until softened, then stir in the chopped tomato. Cook everything together for another 4 minutes, until the tomato breaks down and the lard turns red-orange around the edges of the pasta. The kitchen should smell like a Merida courtyard at one in the afternoon.
- 5
Simmer the pasta in the bean broth
Carefully pour the bean broth and beans into the skillet with the toasted coditos. You want enough liquid to cover the pasta by about two inches; if the pot looks thirsty, add hot water. Bring back to a gentle simmer and cook uncovered for 8 to 10 minutes, until the coditos are tender but still have a little bite. The pasta will drink the broth and the soup will thicken on its own. Stir now and then so nothing sticks. Taste for salt one more time. The beans absorb salt as they sit, so the broth needs to be assertive.
- 6
Serve generously
Ladle the sopa into deep bowls while it is still loose. It tightens as it cools, so serve it the moment it is done. Crumble the queso sopero on top, drizzle with a spoonful of crema de rancho, and set the lima agria halves and sliced habanero on the side. Each person finishes their own bowl at the table. A squeeze of lima agria right before the first spoonful is the move. Saber cocinar es saber vivir.
Chef Tips
- •If you cannot find lima agria, do not substitute Persian lime and call it the same dish. Use Mexican key lime with a small piece of the peel grated in. It is a compromise, not an upgrade, but it gets closer to the floral note that lima agria gives. A regular grocery store lime will taste flat and sour, nothing like the peninsula.
- •The habanero stays whole and pricked with the tip of a knife. Whole. Do not chop it into the pot unless you want your guests to put down their spoons. Sliced habanero goes on the side for those who want to add a piece to their own bowl. That is how it is done in Yucatecan homes.
- •Queso sopero is the soft, salty cheese Yucatecan cooks use to finish soups. Queso de bola, the local Edam, is the celebration version. In the United States, a young Edam or a mild grating cheese with some salt comes close. Cotija is too dry. Feta is wrong. Cheddar is a betrayal.
Advance Preparation
- •The black bean broth can be made up to three days ahead and refrigerated. It only deepens. Reheat gently before adding the toasted pasta.
- •Do not cook the coditos in advance. Pasta sitting in bean broth turns to mush within an hour. Toast and simmer the coditos at the last moment, then serve immediately.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 420g)
Calories
660 calories
Total Fat
15 g
Saturated Fat
7 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
7 g
Cholesterol
25 mg
Sodium
460 mg
Total Carbohydrates
108 g
Dietary Fiber
15 g
Sugars
5 g
Protein
23 g
Where cooking meets culture.
Culinary guides, cultural storytelling, and the editorial depth that makes cooking meaningful.
Discover Culinary ExplorerMore from Yucatecan Soups & Stews
Browse the full collection
Chef Lupita
Caldo de Pescado Yucateco
Yucatán's bright, citrus-driven fish soup, built on a fast fish broth, charred tomato, recado rojo bloomed in lard, and the perfume of a whole unbroken habanero floating in the pot.
Chef Lupita
Chocolomo de Tizimín
Tizimín's celebration stew from the cattle country of eastern Yucatán, beef loin and offal simmered in a broth of hierbabuena, recado rojo, and naranja agria, finished at the table with lima agria and habanero.
Chef Lupita
Crema de Chaya Yucateca
Yucatán's elegant white-tablecloth soup, boiled chaya leaves blended with sweated onion, butter, and evaporated milk, finished with buttered croutons. The soup that opens weddings and feast days in Mérida.