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Açorda Alentejana

A garlic and coriander bread soup enriched with olive oil and finished with a soft poached egg on top.

#bread#garlic#coriander#egg#leftovers
Açorda Alentejana

Photo : Filipe Fortes · CC BY-SA 2.0

Prep
15 min
Cook
15 min
Total
30 min
Serves
4
Difficulty
Easy

Method

  1. Pound the garlic with the coarse salt in a mortar until it becomes a paste. Add the roughly chopped coriander leaves and keep pounding to release their oils.
  2. Work the olive oil into the paste a spoonful at a time until you have a glossy green purée. Spread it over the base of a large soup bowl or tureen.
  3. Tear or cut the bread into big chunks and pile them on top. If it is very hard, simply let it soak a little longer at the next step.
  4. Bring the water to the boil, season it well, then pour it slowly over the bread. Cover and leave for 5 minutes so everything swells and softens.
  5. Meanwhile poach the eggs for 3 minutes in a pan of barely simmering water with the vinegar added, so the whites set and the yolks stay runny.
  6. Stir the soup gently to distribute the garlic paste, grind over plenty of pepper, then ladle into bowls and set a poached egg on each.

Born of thrift in the plains of the Alentejo, this açorda turns bread too dry to eat into a full meal. Use an olive oil you would happily taste from the spoon, because it leads the flavour.

Nutrition · per serving

Calories
516 kcal
Protein
17.2 g
Fat
28.2 g
Carbohydrate
49.2 g
Fibre
2.6 g

An estimate computed from the recipe quantities and the USDA food composition database. Real values vary with the products used.

Frequently asked questions

How do I make this açorda vegan?

The soup itself is only bread, garlic, coriander, olive oil and water, so only the poached egg has to go. Cooked chickpeas or pan-fried mushroom slices work in its place, added at the last moment so there is still a contrast in texture against the swollen bread.

What kind of bread should I use?

A tight-crumbed sourdough country loaf, two or three days old. Its crust and crumb stand up to boiling water and stay in recognisable pieces. Sliced sandwich bread or a baguette collapse within seconds and leave a pulpy soup with nothing to chew.

Why does the water have to be boiling rather than warm?

The heat is what tames the raw pounded garlic and swells the bread quickly. With merely warm water the garlic keeps a harsh bite and the bread soaks slowly, staying rubbery in the middle. Pour the water straight off the boil, cover, and leave it alone for five minutes.

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