Sopa de Garbanzo con Hoja de Aguacate

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Heavy 6-quart pot or clay cazuela de barro
• •Cast iron comal or heavy skillet for toasting
• •Blender
• •Small cup or ramekin for cracking eggs

Instructions

1. 1

   Soak the chickpeas

   The night before, put the dried chickpeas in a large bowl and cover with cold water by three inches. Add a teaspoon of salt. Let them soak for at least ten hours or overnight. They will double in size. Drain and rinse them before cooking. Dried chickpeas from a Mexican market or a bulk bin are what you want. Canned chickpeas will not hold up in a long simmer and they turn to mush. No me vengas con atajos.

   If you forgot to soak them, cover the chickpeas with boiling water and let them sit for one hour. It is a compromise, not a replacement. Overnight is better.
2. 2

   Cook the chickpeas

   Put the drained chickpeas in a heavy pot with eight cups of fresh water. Bring to a simmer over medium heat. Skim any foam that rises in the first ten minutes. Reduce heat to low, cover, and cook for 45 minutes to one hour, until the chickpeas are tender but still hold their shape. They should yield when you press one between your fingers but not collapse. Do not add salt yet. Salt toughens the skins during cooking. You will season later.

3. 3

   Toast the avocado leaves and chiles

   While the chickpeas cook, heat a dry comal or cast iron skillet over medium. Lay the avocado leaves flat on the surface and toast for about 10 seconds per side, pressing them gently with a spatula. The moment they turn a shade darker and the kitchen fills with a warm anise smell, they are done. Pull them off immediately. Then toast the chile de arbol on the same comal, rolling them with your fingers for 15 to 20 seconds until they darken slightly and smell sharp. Set aside with the leaves.

   The avocado leaf burns in seconds. Watch it. Burned hoja de aguacate tastes acrid and there is no fixing it. You want fragrant, not charred.
4. 4

   Roast the tomato and aromatics

   On the same hot comal, place the whole Roma tomatoes, the quarter onion, and the unpeeled garlic cloves. Roast them, turning occasionally, until the tomato skins blister and blacken in spots, the onion chars on the cut side, and the garlic softens inside its papery skin, about 10 to 12 minutes total. The tomatoes should be soft all the way through and a little collapsed. Peel the garlic. Transfer everything to a blender with the toasted chiles de arbol and blend until smooth. Do not add water. The tomato releases enough liquid on its own.

5. 5

   Fry the salsa base

   In a deep clay cazuela or the same heavy pot you cooked the chickpeas in, melt the lard over medium-high heat. When the lard shimmers, pour in the blended tomato and chile mixture. It will spit and sizzle. Good. That is the lard frying the sugars and acids in the tomato. Stir constantly for five to seven minutes, until the salsa darkens by a shade, thickens, and the fat begins to separate at the edges. La manteca es el sabor. This step concentrates the flavor and removes the raw tomato taste.

6. 6

   Build the soup

   Add the cooked chickpeas and their cooking liquid to the fried salsa. Crumble two of the toasted avocado leaves into the pot. Keep the third one whole and drop it in. Stir, add the tablespoon of salt, and bring everything to a gentle simmer. Cook uncovered for 15 minutes so the avocado leaf infuses the broth and the flavors come together. Taste for salt now. The broth should taste full and slightly anise-scented, with a clean chile heat at the back of the throat. Adjust.

7. 7

   Poach the eggs

   Reduce the heat until the broth barely simmers. You want lazy bubbles, not a rolling boil, or the eggs will shred. One at a time, crack each egg into a small cup and slide it gently into the broth, spacing them apart so they do not run into each other. Cover the pot and cook for four to five minutes. The whites should be fully set and the yolks still soft and golden when you break them open at the table. If you want the yolks firmer, give them another minute. Asi se hace y punto.

   Crack each egg into a cup first, then slide it in. If you crack directly over the pot, a broken yolk will cloud the broth before you can do anything about it.
8. 8

   Serve in deep bowls

   Ladle the soup into deep bowls, making sure each person gets a share of chickpeas and one whole poached egg resting on top. Fish out and discard the whole avocado leaf if you find it. Set lime wedges and sliced raw white onion on the table alongside warm corn tortillas. The tortilla is for tearing and dipping into the broth between spoonfuls. That is how it is eaten in the Valles Centrales. Recetas probadas y garantizadas.

Chef Tips

• •The avocado leaf must come from the criollo avocado, Persea drymifolia. The leaves from the Hass avocado have almost no aroma and will do nothing for this soup. In the United States, dried hoja de aguacate is sold at Mexican grocery stores and online from Oaxacan vendors. Crush a leaf between your fingers before you buy. If it doesn't smell like anise, it is the wrong leaf or it is too old.
• •Dried chickpeas vary. Some cook in 45 minutes, some take an hour and a half. Older dried beans take longer. If yours are taking forever, they may be last year's stock. Buy from a market with high turnover. In Oaxaca, the vendors at the Mercado de Abastos sell chickpeas that cook in under an hour because the stock turns over every few days.
• •Four chiles de arbol gives a gentle warmth. Six gives a real presence. Adjust to your table. This soup is not supposed to be fiery. The avocado leaf and the tomato are the main flavors, and the chile should support, not shout.
• •If you cannot find dried avocado leaf, do not substitute bay leaf. Bay leaf is a different plant with a different flavor and it will make a different soup. Better to make the soup without it and know what you are missing than to pretend a substitution is the same thing.

Advance Preparation

• •The chickpeas can be cooked one day ahead and refrigerated in their cooking liquid. The tomato-chile base can also be fried and stored separately. Combine and reheat on serving day, then poach the eggs fresh.
• •Do not poach the eggs ahead of time. They must be done at the last moment. The soft yolk breaking into the hot broth is the point of the dish.
• •Leftover soup without the eggs keeps refrigerated for three days. Reheat gently and poach fresh eggs into it each time you serve.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 510g)