Soup
Sopa Maluca – Crazy Soup – by Dona Chica and Maria do Rosário em Odemira. Photo by Filipe Gill
Algarve 1983. Three boys of 18 on an adventure.
When money ran out we decided to stay for another week. After all when you are 18 anything is possible. So we had to survive on creative solutions including eating fruit that we picked up along the way – mainly tomatoes, figs, peaches, and almonds – drinking water from fountains and sleeping on the grass by the swimming pool. My friends had the nerve to ask for a free meal in restaurants, but the fear of rejection held me back.
When I found 100 escudos forgotten in a hidden pocket of my backpack, I walked into this little restaurant on the outskirts of Lagos and asked for a bowl of soup. It was beautiful: homemade with lots of beans. It was served in a tin bowl, like in the army, but it tasted like the best meal of my life. And then I asked for another one.
40 years later I still remember my trembling hand handling the spoon and enjoying each one with a sense of pleasure and gratitude. From then on I have always valued and respected Portuguese soup.
__
Soup is the unsung hero of food. Humble and undervalued is an integral part of the Portuguese diet. It should be defended and promoted, especially the ‘proper’ versions where ingredients are fresh, tasty, and nourishing.
When you sit down in a restaurant on a winter afternoon, there is a good chance there will be a heartening plate of soup that will likely involve cabbage and beans. If you’re lucky the beans will be proper – not out of a can – and the cabbage picked from the “horta’ early that morning.
10 iconic Portuguese soups:
The late night snack (see dedicated article)
Sopa Alentejana
The quintessential dish from Alentejo: bread, garlic, olive oil, and hot water. You can ask for a poached egg on top.
Sopa da Pedra – soup of the stone – is a full dish. Made with beans and meat it follows a legend of a Friar that was clever enough to make a delicious and nourishing soup with a simple stone. More on this story in the future. The town of Almeirim in the Ribatejo is known as the capital of “Sopa da Pedra”.
Sopa de Feijão Verde
Green Bean Soup: A classic of simplicity and healthy ingredients.
Sopa de Feijão
Red bean pureé soup. For some people also known as Sopa de Chocolate – Chocolate Soup.
Sopa de Grão com Nabiças
Chickpea and turnip tops soup. The most genuine recipe will use soaked and not tinned chickpeas, but most people will use the faster version. This is another reason to keep supporting local traditional restaurants because they still use the most laborious yet better-tasting approach.
Sopa de Marisco
The taste of the sea in a bowl. If made with fresh ingredients is a treat.
Sopa do Cozido
This soup is made from Cozido. Very nourishing; tastes even better on a Winter day.
Sopa de Trigo
A soup I have had the good fortune of tasting in Madeira, in the town of Santana. Its base is wheat, but it has lots of tasty vegetables and pork meat for added flavour. The wheat adds an unusual texture. Highly recommended after a walk on this magnificent island.
Gaspacho
This is a cold soup suitable for those hot Summer days in Alentejo. Quite different from the Spanish “Gazpacho” because it does not involve blitzing the whole thing into a purée.
