Portuguese garlic and cilantro soup (açorda alentejana)

This is the soup-style açorda alentejana — the brothier, lighter cousin of the thick bread stew (my skillet version is also on the site). Here, a fragrant broth of garlic, cilantro and olive oil is poured over slices of stale bread, with a poached egg riding on top.

It is Alentejo frugality at its most elegant: boiling water transformed by a mashed paste of garlic, salt and cilantro into something that tastes far older and wiser than its ten-minute preparation.

The bread drinks the broth, the yolk enriches it at the table, and the olive oil finishes the argument. Peasant food that outclasses most restaurant starters.

Açorda Alentejana (Soup Style) Recipe

Prep time: 10 minutes · Cook time: 20 minutes · Total: 30 minutes · Servings: 4 · Calories: ~187 per serving

Ingredients

• 6 cups water
• 6 garlic cloves, minced
• 4 tablespoons olive oil, plus more to finish
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 bunch fresh cilantro, chopped
• 4 thick slices stale bread
• 4 large eggs (optional but traditional)

Instructions

1. Boil the water in a medium pot, then add the garlic, olive oil and salt.
2. Cook at medium heat about 5 minutes to infuse.
3. Add the cilantro and simmer 3 minutes more.
4. Poach the eggs directly in the soup, 3 to 4 minutes, until the whites set with runny yolks.
5. Place a slice of bread in each bowl and ladle the hot soup over.
6. Top with an egg, let the bread soak a minute, and finish with a thread of olive oil.

Recipe Notes

• The traditional method mashes the garlic, salt and cilantro to a paste in a mortar first — worth the extra two minutes.
• Alentejo bread (or any dense country loaf) holds the broth without dissolving.
• For the thicker, stirred version of this dish, see my skillet açorda recipe — same soul, different texture.