Sopa de Almendras (Sopa de almendras)
Overview
Sopa de almendras is a sweet almond soup from Madrid and the two Castiles, served hot at the end of the Christmas Eve dinner. Blanched almonds are pounded in a mortar to a smooth paste, or bought ready ground, and dissolved in hot milk that has been infused with a cinnamon stick and a strip of lemon peel. An equal weight of sugar goes in, and the mixture is simmered gently until it thickens slightly. It is traditionally served in an earthenware dish, sometimes with thin slices of toasted bread or toasted pine nuts on top. The result is creamy, fragrant and quite sweet, rather like warm marzipan.
History
Because its ingredients are those of marzipan, the soup is thought to share marzipan's Moorish and convent roots. Before the twentieth century the Christmas Eve supper in Spain was a day of abstinence from meat and dairy, so the almond paste was thinned with water rather than milk. Pastry shops used to sell small packets of almond paste for making the soup at Christmas, and it is eaten after the dinner and before the turrón.
Main ingredients
Ground almonds, milk, sugar, cinnamon, lemon peel, toasted bread. The soup is built on sweet hot almond milk and is usually served hot. Diet: vegetarian; not usually gluten-free.
Explore: More soups from Spain
Recipe
Method
- 110 min
Heat the milk with the cinnamon and lemon peel, then leave it to infuse for 10 minutes.
- 2
Pound the almonds with a little milk to a smooth paste.
- 3
Remove the cinnamon and peel, stir in the almond paste and the sugar.
- 410 min
Simmer very gently for 10 minutes, stirring, until slightly thickened.
- 5
Serve hot in an earthenware bowl with the toasted bread and pine nuts.
- ✓
Serve. About 30 min from start to bowl.
Sources
Description, history and recipe written by SoupWiki and checked against the sources above. Calories and times are rough estimates.
