COPPERSopa paraguaya recipe
A Paraguayan cornbread whose weight is nearly half fresh cheese and slow-cooked onion, baked firm enough to cut in squares.
Ingredients
- 400 g paraguayan fresh cheese
- 300 g fine corn flour
- 4 onions
- 4 eggs
- 500 ml milk
- 80 g pork lard
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp black pepper
How to make Sopa paraguaya
- Heat the oven to 180 C and grease a dish that will hold the batter about 4 cm deep.
- Slice 4 onions thin and cook them gently in 80 g of pork lard for 10 minutes until translucent, then season with salt and pepper.
- Separate 4 eggs and beat the whites to soft peaks.
- Mix 300 g of fine corn flour with 500 ml of milk, then stir in the onions with all their fat and the 4 yolks.
- Fold in 400 g of crumbled Paraguayan fresh cheese, it is nearly as heavy as the flour and it is what makes the dish.
- Fold in the beaten whites: no baking powder is used, the whites do the lifting.
- Pour into the dish and bake 40 minutes until golden and firm to a skewer.
- Rest 10 minutes, cut into squares and serve beside grilled meat or a broth.
What is Sopa paraguaya?
Sopa paraguaya is a traditional dish from Paraguay, baked in the oven, and takes about 1 hour and 15 minutes from start to finish. It is built around milk, paraguayan fresh cheese and fine corn flour. The recipe below uses 8 ingredients and is written out step by step.
How long does Sopa paraguaya take?
At 75 minutes it is quicker than 70% of the 586 dishes in Copper's atlas. Copper's atlas has 29 dishes built on milk. The method runs to 8 steps, the longest being 40 minutes.
Any tips for making Sopa paraguaya?
Fold in the egg whites beaten to soft peaks last: there is no baking powder, so they are what lifts the sopa.
How Sopa paraguaya compares
Hard to find elsewhere: fine corn flour (1), paraguayan fresh cheese (2) and pork lard (3).
Copper documents Paraguay alongside 197 other countries. Every recipe is free to read, with the full ingredient list and every step.