Chef John's Spanish Garlic Soup (Sopa de Ajo)

As a native Spaniard, (from Madrid), I give this recipe a 4 because is a pretty close one to be authentic. We do NOT use ham or cayenne. There is a misconception about Spanish food, we do not have that many spicy dishes at all, far from Mexican food, where they like it hot. A variation is to cut the bread in cubes instead of leaving it whole, and to stir in the egg beaten, like you do with Chinese egg drop soup.

Fantastic soup, easy, quick and cheap! I tried it also with just regular slices of bread: it is not the same of course, but still very tasty!! We also substituted paprika with smoked paprika and it was great!

What a great recipe! I liked to use a little less paprika not to overpower the garlic flavour. The garlic flavour is subtle, kind of like onions in a French onion soup. This brought me right back to this Spanish restaurant I went with my family a long time ago. I'm happy to have found this little gem, it really brings me back. Thanks Chef John! Love all your recipes, you have great taste.

I am a chef here in Montreal, working for a private yacht club,, we had a dinner just the other night, I took this opportunity to show case this recipe for this soup.. They all loved it !! the smoky paprika, I used a spicy choriso sausage because it was on sale, but followed all the rest of ingredients, Cooking with you is fun.. enjoy all your demonstrations, Chef John! Cheers !!!

Excellent! I cannot comment as to the authenticity of this recipe, but it is VERY good. Delicious recipe as is

I don't usually care for soup but we LOVE this one. We've modified it a bit for our tastes like using about 1 lb of cubed ham steak to 4 cartons of stock and using a combo of sweet, smoked and spicy paprikas. If you toast your paprika in the oil a bit before adding the stock, it really brings out the flavors. We add a lot of paprika because it's delicious. When we poach the eggs, they always seem to sink to the bottom, but we can still fish them out when serving. This is also one that gets better as it sits. The bread makes the leftovers almost creamy. So tasty!

If your eggs are sinking your not putting enough bread in, very good

Added some garlic. Whole family loved this. I had some trouble getting all the eggs poached at the same time. Next time I may poach separately

Reminds me a bit of a French onion soup but without the onions and cheese. The eggs give it a wicked twist, definitely one to keep.

will make again - nice meld of flavors - umami

I've made this twice and it's absolutely delicious. Almost gave it 4 stars because I couldn't stop the eggs from sinking (which is maddening) and can't watch them cook so they're usually over done. It must be my technique since according to the video it can be done!

Next time I think I'll add more bread so the eggs stay up better, but it tasted great! Husband loved it.

This was the best soup I ever had, made by the recipe as close as I could... the eggs were fabulous. It was just as Chef John said... more than a meal. I absolutely love this soup!

Oh. My. Goodness. This is soooooooo good. I made it exactly as written, adjusting the paprika to my liking (i added more). It was a bit spicy with the cayenne, so i think next time ill just omit that. Otherwise, perfection!

Soooo good, i don't make any adjustments. Perfect as is.

This came out so good! I think next time I will use bacon instead of ham. It was delicious!

Made it just as it called for and it was fantastic!

Loved it, will definitely make it again! Perfect for a cold, rainy day. I used too much bread and too little chicken broth, but it was still SO delicious.

Ingredients are simple and cheap, didn't take too long at all to make! Incredibly flavorful and hearty, I definitely will be making this one again. You can't go wrong with Chef John :)

Loved it. So rich and comforting. I left out the ham and roasted the garlic. I’d definitely make it again esp considering how inexpensive it is. I made mine in my instant pot, cracked my eggs (double yolks!) right on top. Very reminiscent of shakshuka. One note: how can you leave a less than stellar review of a recipe when you didn’t follow the recipe to the T? That’s the chance you take when you veer from the instructions.

I halved most of the recipe as there are only two of us but kept the same amount of garlic and spices as we prefer strong flavours. Absolutely delicious! Will definitely be making this again.

This tasted excellent, but I had some problems with the preparation. I did make a few alterations: used a loaf of Italian bread and didn't measure the amount. Didn't have EVOO so just used regular olive oil. I also just used up my remaining ham and thus didn't measure. The biggest changes resulted from my not having a large enough pot: I ended up having to use two, which was rather chaotic. Also, this was probably due to my imperfect measurements, but my eggs didn't really poach properly; rather, they sort of poached but mostly just seeped into the soup dish. Anyway, it was still totally delicious, and I'm now in love with the taste of savory smoked paprika.

Thank you Chef John. This soup is easy to make, delicious and a new favorite comfort food.

This is a great weeknight recipe. Completely delicious and very quick to make. One thing: definitely use French bread. I used a sub roll instead and that bread couldn’t stand up to the liquid.

This is SO delicious. Especially with the egg. I would just recommend watching the video. Mine did not look exactly like his (I'm not sure he always gets the measurements right when he translates them into the "non-chef" world) but watching the video helps you get the idea. But you can't do much to screw up this great soup. It's a great soup for people like me who aren't great cooks!

This has become a favorite in my house! This soup is so flavorful and satisfying. I eat this year round. I love it without the ham but my partner absolutely loves the ham dynamic.

It's flavorful. The eggs do not stay nicely in the liitle indentations. They all sunk to the bottom of the pan so I had to fish them out and ended up breaking two of them.

added a bit of white wine and used chorizo instead of ham. awesome soup!

This was absolutely delicious, though I left out the ham and cayenne. I made it a bit heavy on the garlic and a generous with the smoked paprika (how I love that flavor). I bought a $0.70 loaf of day old "crusty white bread", and it held up perfectly in the soup. Will definitely make this again.

This was a rare Chef John miss for me. Made this per the recipe, with one exception, left the ham out and added some smoked sausage instead. ( I am not a big fan of ham and the wife has stomach problems after eating it). First off though, the flavor is amazing. the garlic, paprika and sausage go really well together. What bothered both of us was the texture of bread in the soup. It was ok, but I wouldn't go out of my way to eat this again.

Not sure what went wrong. I followed the recipe exactly, but it didn't turn out red, like the photo shown. (i used Penzey's paprika, so it shouldn't be a problem there) Flavor: tasted a lot like ramen noodles, minus the noodles. Disappointed. Giving it 2 starts because the eggs on top of soup were good.

Well, this knocked my socks off! Had to replace ham with diced portuguese sausage. also didn't have parsley, so put in some cilantro.and skipped the egg on the first round; delicious! Second round poached egg on top and was another level of OMG drool-worthy. Definitely making again.

This soup is life changing. Please cook it.

Absolutely delicious! Another great recipe by Chef John! I was a little nervous about this having bread in it but it was superb. Not at all disappointed.

After modifying this soup for vegetarian consumption (sautéed mushrooms and veggie broth for ham and chicken broth) I found this soup to be very salty. Perhaps it was the broth I used, but it overpowered the garlic flavor that I was looking forward to. I will try it again without adding any salt, using a less salty broth, and adding more paprika and garlic.

Chef John recipes never ever fail. This was a lot easier than I expected it to be. The eggs don't really sit in the bread depressions, they more or less sink to the middle of the boiling soup pot. I didn't have a ladle but I just used another bowl to scoop them and serve, hence the bad plating job. About 2 minutes with the lid on while the soup is boiling leads to perfect poached egg consistency. If I could have changed anything I would have used a different type of ham. I used basic diced ham. Next time I would use leftover spiral/smoked ham or something a little more flavorful. I also chopped up cilantro into the parsley. Really good. Thanks, Chef.

The flavor was phenomenal and it’s such a simply yet impressive recipe. Didn’t use ham because I’m not a fan, and it was perfect even without it. The bread does get quite soft but you could always let it simmer for less time or bake it longer until its very dry and crispy. My only issue is that my eggs immediately sunk so I guess my soup wasn’t thick enough, but it was still delicious!

This soup exceeded my expectations! Not too strong on the garlic but could definitely taste it. I made it my own. I didn't add ham or egg this time but added in chopped carrots and red pepper. I used croutons and it was great, no hot spices for me either but a bit extra salt. Will make again for sure!

I have made this soup twice...each time it was delicious!

This is one of those special dishes where the flavors come together to create a totally unique flavor. No one ingredient sticks out; it is a delicious blend of all of them. I made it as directed with the exception that my bread had been around for a few days before I got around to making this soup; but using stale bread was not a problem. The only criticism I have is that I would use no- or low-sodium chicken broth, as the ham provides enough salt and you can always add it at the end. Additionally, this is a make and eat soup. I had some left over and the bread continues to absorb the broth creating a gelatinous goop. Luckily this soup recipe comes together easily and quickly.

Made it without ham. Good textures of bread balanced with eggs. I prefer to fully cook the yoke to bring back some chew.

I wanted to make something different and I saw this video. Although I always love Chef John's recipes, I was a bit skeptical about this one but it’s definitely different so I had to try it. I sure loved that it’s cheap and quick to make. It’s super garlic-y and tasted “fine.” My husband liked it more than I did. I don’t think this will be my go-to recipe for soup but now I know what to make when there’s nothing in the house!

This was pretty good , but kind of thick. Maybe I'll use a little less bread the next time.

Maybe it’s because of a few tweaks on my part , but I did not enjoy the bread in it being so soggy . It was decent, although - I don’t know if I would make it again

I made it exactly as written, and it's a very flavorful soup with a good texture. Unfortunately, my bread mostly fell apart once I added the chicken stock. I tried to gently float an egg on top to poach it, but the egg slid through the top layer and disappeared. The egg cooked like it was egg drop soup and added a bit of richness, but it's now not the most appealing soup in existence. I'm not sure what I did wrong since, in the YouTube video, the bread holds its shape and supports the eggs.

The flavor is amazing and very easy to make. However, this needs a lot more liquid or a lot less bread. The liquid was completely soaked up by the bread almost immediately and we ended up eating (delicious) soggy bread rather than soup.