Sopa de Ajo (Spanish garlic soup)

[Granny Smith]

Very frugal recipe and all of the ingredients can be grown or made at home.

Sopa de Ajo (Spanish garlic soup)

8-10 cloves garlic, peeled and thinly sliced. (I used 4 rounded teaspoons of minced garlic from a jar)
8 cups broth (vegetable, chicken, beef, whatever -- water will do in a pinch as well)
2T oil or fat
1T paprika (make sure it's not stale, and smoked paprika works beautifully)
4 slices or so stale bread torn or cut into 1" or 2" cubes
4 to 8 eggs
Salt and pepper

Heat the oil over medium-low heat in a heavy-bottomed pot.

Saute the garlic until it's just beginning to color.

Add the paprika and saute for 15 seconds or so until fragrant. Don't scorch the paprika!

Add the broth and stir well, scraping up any bits from the bottom.

Bring soup to boil and simmer 5-10 minutes.

Add salt and/or pepper to taste.

Reduce heat to a slow simmer, and then poach the eggs directly in the soup until they reach the level of done-ness that you like.

Divide the stale bread among the bowls and ladle the soup over the bread, making sure that you get at least one egg in each bowl.

Makes 4 generous servings

[Valerie]

Was it good? Did your kids like it?

[Granny Smith]

Some of the kids liked it a lot, some not as much, but they ate it. Some of them thought it needed cheese on top. I tried it that way, but thought it was better plain. I think I liked it the best. Later that day, I was sitting on the swing with Ben and I said, "I wish I had some more of that soup. That was so good". He thought it was funny that I was sitting there thinking about soup.

[Valerie]

Yeah, our kids like it when we pop up with random comments like that. But hey, when it's good, it's good!

[Granny Smith]

If you like garlic, you'll probably like the soup. I LOVE garlic! I made mine with homemade chicken broth that I had in the freezer (at least I think it was chicken broth. I had 2 (1 quart) bags - one labeled, the other not. The second one might have been turkey broth). I also used homemade bread.