Açorda
A soup from the Alentejo made from four things the Portuguese countryside always had: stale bread, garlic, coriander and olive oil. There is no cooking in the usual sense — a garlic and coriander paste is spread in the bowl, the bread added and boiling water poured over. A whole bunch of coriander goes in, and it, not the bread, is the leading flavour. It is on the table in half an hour, and the name itself is usually traced back to Arabic.
Your own work in that: 10 min.
- Garlic paste 10 min
- Broth 10 min
- Combining 10 min
- Eggs 5 min
Step by step
0 / 7 donePound the garlic with salt and coriander
Pound the garlic with coarse salt in a mortar to a paste, add the whole bunch of coriander including the stalks and keep pounding to a green mass. The salt acts as an abrasive — without it the garlic slides about and is hard to break down.
Ingredients: 6 cloves garlic · 1 bunch coriander · 1 tsp coarse salt · 80 ml olive oil
A green paste from the whole bunch — stalks included.Work the oil into the paste
Stir all 80 ml of the oil into the paste in the mortar. Mixed with the paste, the oil coats every piece of bread and carries the garlic and coriander through the whole soup.
Ingredients: 6 cloves garlic · 1 bunch coriander · 1 tsp coarse salt · 80 ml olive oil
Boil water with bay
Bring the water to a boil with the bay leaf and salt and keep it boiling. That is the entire broth — açorda alentejana is traditionally made with plain water, though some versions use the water fish was cooked in. At the same time bring a smaller pan of water with the vinegar to the boil for the eggs.
Ingredients: 350 g bread · 1200 ml water · 1 pcs bay leaf · 1 tsp salt · 1 tbsp wine vinegar
Tear the bread and mix with the paste
Tear the stale bread by hand into large, uneven pieces and mix with the garlic paste in a big bowl until every piece is green. Torn, not cut — ragged edges absorb water differently and give a varied texture.
Ingredients: 350 g bread · 1200 ml water · 1 pcs bay leaf · 1 tsp salt · 1 tbsp wine vinegar
Torn by hand, every piece green with paste.Pour on boiling water and break it up
Remove the bay leaf and pour the boiling water over the bread, adding it gradually. After 2–3 minutes, once the bread has soaked, break some of the pieces up with a fork until you have a thick, uneven soup. Not smooth: açorda should keep visible pieces of bread — the consistency sits between soup and porridge.
Ingredients: 350 g bread · 1200 ml water · 1 pcs bay leaf · 1 tsp salt · 1 tbsp wine vinegar
Poach the eggs
Lower the heat under the pan of vinegared water to a bare tremble and slide the eggs in one at a time from a cup. Cook 3 minutes. The vinegar sets the white faster and stops it dispersing through the pan.
Ingredients: 350 g bread · 1200 ml water · 1 pcs bay leaf · 1 tsp salt · 1 tbsp wine vinegar
Barely trembling water, egg slid in from a cup.Serve with egg and raw oil
Spoon the soup into bowls, set an egg on each, drizzle generously with raw olive oil and scatter with fresh coriander. Serve immediately — açorda thickens by the minute and after a quarter of an hour turns into a stodgy mush.
Ingredients: 4 pcs eggs · 4 tbsp olive oil · 4 tbsp coriander
Before you start
Coriander is not optional
This is one of the few Western European dishes where coriander leads — something often attributed to Arab influence on the peninsula. Replacing it with parsley gives an entirely different, far paler soup. Without coriander, cook something else.
The prawn version
Lisbon's açorda de marisco soaks the bread in prawn stock and adds peeled prawns and coriander. It is richer and more festive; the Alentejo version with an egg alone is simpler and everyday.
Eat it straight away
Açorda tolerates neither waiting nor reheating — the bread keeps absorbing and the soup turns into a solid mass. It is made just before serving, from whatever bread is in the house.
