Chef Isabel
Aguaillo de la Sierra de Cadiz
Aguaillo is from the Sierra de Cadiz: cold water, stale bread, garlic, oil and vinegar, closer to a field drink than a bowl of soup, and sharp enough to wake you in the heat.
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Sopas de Ajo Riojanas
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Sopas de ajo Riojanas belong to La Rioja: garlic soup made fuller with leek, tomato, choricero pepper, fresh chorizo, and bread that thickens the red broth without turning it heavy.
Soups & Stews
Spanish
Comfort Food
Budget Friendly
One Pot
20 min
Active Time
45 min cook•1 hr 5 min total
Yield4 servings
Sopas de ajo Riojanas are La Rioja's garlic soup, and they are not the plainer Castilian bowl with only garlic, bread, pimentón, and egg. Here the soup gets its body from leek, tomato, pimiento choricero, and fresh chorizo, so the broth turns red and round before the bread ever goes in. This is cocina de cuchara, spoon food, made from the larder, but it still asks you to pay attention.
The method that decides it is the slow base. Cook the leek and garlic gently in the chorizo fat until they soften and smell sweet, then cook the tomato down until it loses its raw water. That is where the broth gets depth. If you rush it, you get garlic water with bread floating in it, and nobody needs that.
If you are far from La Rioja, use jarred carne de pimiento choricero, the scraped pulp sold in small jars, before you reach for anything else. If you cannot find it, use a dried ñora soaked and scraped, plus a small spoon of sweet pimentón; the flavour will be a little softer and less earthy, but the soup will still stand up straight. Use fresh cooking chorizo if you can, not the hard dry slices meant for a board.
Add the bread only after the broth has simmered, and let it swell without beating it to paste. Poach the eggs right in the soup if you want the full bowl. Siempre sale, si lo sigues. In the Margin beside mine I wrote only this: do not burn the garlic.
Sopas de ajo are old Castilian spoon food, built from stale bread, garlic, oil, and water, but La Rioja made its own heartier version from the Ebro Valley larder. The region's chorizo and pimiento choricero give the soup its red colour and deeper broth, while leek and tomato mark it apart from the stricter sopa castellana. It belongs to the practical winter kitchen: bread saved from yesterday, pork from the household larder, and enough garlic to make a cheap pot taste full.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
dried pimientos choriceros
Quantity
2
soaked, scraped for pulp
chicken stock or water
Quantity
1.2 litres
fresh cooking chorizo
Quantity
250g
cut into 1cm coins
extra virgin olive oil
Quantity
60ml
leek
Quantity
1 large
white and pale green parts only, finely sliced
garlic cloves
Quantity
10
thinly sliced
ripe tomatoes
Quantity
250g
grated, or use 200g canned crushed tomato
sweet pimentón
Quantity
1 teaspoon
day-old rustic bread
Quantity
200g
sliced thin
large eggs
Quantity
4
fine salt
Quantity
1 teaspoon, plus more to taste
black pepper (optional)
Quantity
to taste
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| dried pimientos choricerossoaked, scraped for pulp | 2 |
| chicken stock or water | 1.2 litres |
| fresh cooking chorizocut into 1cm coins | 250g |
| extra virgin olive oil | 60ml |
| leekwhite and pale green parts only, finely sliced | 1 large |
| garlic clovesthinly sliced | 10 |
| ripe tomatoesgrated, or use 200g canned crushed tomato | 250g |
| sweet pimentón | 1 teaspoon |
| day-old rustic breadsliced thin | 200g |
| large eggs | 4 |
| fine salt | 1 teaspoon, plus more to taste |
| black pepper (optional) | to taste |
Equipment Needed
- •Wide heavy pot or cazuela, 4 litre capacity
- •Small bowl for soaking peppers
- •Box grater for tomato
- •Ladle
Instructions
- 1
Soak the peppers
Put the dried pimientos choriceros in a bowl and cover them with boiling water. Leave them 20 minutes, until the skins soften and the flesh plumps. Split them open, scrape out the red pulp with the back of a knife, and keep that pulp. Discard the skins and seeds.
Jarred carne de pimiento choricero is a good substitute. Use 2 tablespoons and skip the soaking. - 2
Brown the chorizo
Warm the olive oil in a wide heavy pot over medium heat. Add the chorizo coins and cook them 3 to 4 minutes, just until they give up their red fat and take a little colour at the edges. Lift them to a plate, leaving the oil in the pot. Do not cook them dry; they still have to finish in the soup.
- 3
Build the base
Lower the heat and add the leek with a pinch of salt. Cook 8 to 10 minutes, stirring often, until it is soft and glossy but not browned. Add the sliced garlic and cook 2 minutes more, only until sweet-smelling and pale gold. Burnt garlic makes the whole pot bitter, and there is no clever rescue for it.
- 4
Cook the tomato
Stir in the grated tomato and the choricero pepper pulp. Cook 8 to 10 minutes, until the tomato darkens, thickens, and the oil begins to show at the edges. Take the pot off the heat for a moment, stir in the sweet pimentón, then return it to the low heat. Pimentón burns fast, so give it respect.
- 5
Simmer the broth
Pour in the stock or water, scraping the bottom of the pot, then return the chorizo and its juices. Bring to a gentle simmer and cook 15 minutes, until the broth is red, glossy, and tastes of garlic and chorizo all the way through. Taste for salt now; the chorizo will have done some of the work.
- 6
Add the bread
Add the sliced day-old bread and press it down so it drinks the broth. Simmer 5 to 7 minutes, moving it gently with a spoon, until the bread softens and thickens the soup but still leaves some pieces visible. You are making soup, not paste.
- 7
Poach the eggs
Make four small hollows in the soup and crack an egg into each one. Cover the pot and cook gently 4 to 6 minutes, until the whites are set and the yolks are still soft, or a little longer if you like them firm. Finish with black pepper if you want it, then serve straight from the pot into deep bowls.
Chef Tips
- •Use fresh cooking chorizo, chorizo fresco, if you can find it. A hard cured chorizo will flavour the soup, yes, but it gives less juice and can turn chewy; slice it thinner and use 200g instead of 250g.
- •Pimiento choricero is the Riojan and northern pepper to look for. If you cannot find it, a dried ñora gives you a gentler, sweeter red body; add 1 teaspoon sweet pimentón to bring the soup back toward the right place.
- •The bread should be day-old and sturdy, not sandwich bread. Thin slices of a country loaf swell in the broth and thicken it without disappearing into glue.
- •Water is traditional enough when the base is good. Stock makes a fuller bowl, but do not use a salty cube here; chorizo brings salt already, and a harsh stock will shout over the garlic.
Advance Preparation
- •The choricero peppers can be soaked and scraped up to 2 days ahead; keep the pulp covered in the refrigerator.
- •The soup base can be made through the broth simmer up to 1 day ahead. Reheat gently, then add the bread and eggs just before serving.
- •Leftovers keep 2 days in the refrigerator, but the bread will thicken the soup heavily. Loosen with water over low heat and add a fresh egg if serving again.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 455g)
Calories
645 calories
Total Fat
38 g
Saturated Fat
10 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
26 g
Cholesterol
245 mg
Sodium
2450 mg
Total Carbohydrates
50 g
Dietary Fiber
5 g
Sugars
7 g
Protein
27 g
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