Garlic Soup Recipe

This garlic soup recipe will bring you straight to the heart of Spanish Cuisine. Simple and fragrant, this works as cold buster for those chilly autumn evenings. 

Years and years ago, when I first came to Ireland, I worked with Eva. To this day, Eva is still my friend. She is back home in Valencia, in Spain, we may not talk much or often but the affection has never gone. Eva also introduced me to garlic soup and a traditional spanish dish. This garlic soup recipe comes from Eva and many a bowl I’ve had since that summer of 99 when we first met. 

Like many a delicious meal, this garlic soup is extremely simple and you will only require a handful of ingredients, most of which you are likely to already have in your kitchen press. This is a very cheap meal and it allows you to use left over bread. You can see how this would feed a large family very well indeed. The flavours are strong and the pimenton gives you a good sweat. Garlic is, of course, said to be good for your health and this is most definitely a warming and tasty dish if nothing else. 

Ingredients (for 2 people)

• Stale white bread (1 cup per person) 
• 1 bulb of good garlic
• olive oil
• 2 table spoons of pimenton (smoked paprika)
• 2 large eggs 
• Water or stock

Method

• Peel all the garlic cloves and grate them.
• In a large pot, fry large chunks of the bread in some olive oil and the paprika for 2 min.
• Add the garlic and cover with water or stock. 
• Let it cook for 5 min. 
• Crack your eggs gently in the hot soup. Turn off the heat and cover the pot. The eggs will be beautifully poached but still runny after 6 min. 

Good to know

• I used sourdough bread but any type of white crusty bread works a treat. 
• Have the garlic peeled and grated before you start cooking as the soup cooks faster than it takes to prepare the garlic.
• The traditional recipe calls for water but I do like it with chicken or vegetable stock instead. 

A special thank you goes out to Conor Bofin for bringing me back a very generous gift of purple garlic from France. It’s only my favourite and worked a treat in this recipe. 

For further very garlicky recipes I recommend these garlic beans from Caitriona Redmond and also my own recipe for French Aioli.