Sopa de Huevo - Egg Soup

If you have a hangover, Guatemalans will typically give you 3 remedies, a drink with lots of lime, hair of the dog, or the most famous, ‘caldo de huevo’, the best chapin remedy ‘para sacarte la cruda’ – to get rid of the hangover!

If you drank one too many IPA cervezas last night in Pool and Beer last night (did you know their IPA is over 7%!!!) then this is what you need the morning after. Saturdays are the typical day here in Guatemala to eat sopa de huevo, cruda or no cruda.

I was taught to make this soup with a packet of ‘maggi’s sopa criolla con caracolitos’ but I feel this is cheating a little. For those of you that wouldn’t dream of eating packet soups or you’re trying to impress your yoga house friends, here are the instructions to make it from scratch.

Ingredients

Serves 3-4 people

5 cups of chicken stock (ideally homemade but a cube will suffice if you are time or short on pans)

50g of small pasta shapes, ‘conchitas’ the tiny pasta shells are the best

one onion finely chopped

Roughly 2 tablespoons of chopped cilantro

half a jalepeño chilli -green or red- finely chopped (if you like it hot or would like to sweat out your hangover)

1-2 eggs per person depending on your appetite.

1.     Heat up the chicken stock (or vegetable stock if preferred)

2.     When at boiling point add the pasta, the chopped onion, chilli if you’re using it, and one tablespoon of the chopped cilantro. Cook for about 5 minutes until the pasta is soft

3.     Using a whisk or if you don’t have one a spoon start swirling to create a ‘whirlpool’, carefully break all the eggs in. Creating a whirlpool keeps the eggs holding together in the soup and the yolk from breaking

4.     Cook over a low heat simmering for another 3-4 minutes to cook the eggs through

5.     Turn the heat off and let it sit to cool slightly

6.     Using a ladle spoon the soup into bowls, serving 1-2 eggs per person depending how hungry they are, or how bad their hangover is

7.     Sprinkle the remaining cilantro on top of the soups and serve with hot tortillas; avocado if you wish, and a little lime

8.     Feel the hangover instantly begin to ease, sit back and once recovered its time to head over to ’El cuartito’ for a Bloody Mary. Hangover cured!