The difference between egg soup with fine ribbons and egg soup with lumps is about 30 degrees. Egg proteins set between 144°F and 183°F, so at 180°F the beaten egg stretches into threads, and at a boil it breaks into curds that cloud everything. Four bowls at 240 calories, ready in a little over half an hour, with one minute that actually matters.
How do you make Colombian egg soup? Cook scallions and garlic for six minutes, add the stock and 1 lb of potato and simmer twenty more. Bring the heat down until the broth stops bubbling, around 180°F, and pour in 4 beaten eggs in a thin stream while stirring in circles. They set in 1 minute. 35 minutes for 4 servings.
The temperature is the whole dish
An egg does not set all at once: its proteins set in sequence, from around 144°F for the first ones to 183°F for the albumen. That gives a narrow and very usable window.
At 180°F the broth steams but does not bubble. Egg poured in a thin stream meets a moving liquid, stretches and sets into long ribbons before it can gather. If the broth is still bubbling it sets too fast and forms curds; at 212°F it breaks into lumps and releases particles that cloud the soup.
Without a thermometer the cue is visual: drop the heat and wait until the bubbles disappear and the broth only steams. That takes about 2 minutes, and it decides the result.
The 2 gestures that go with it
Temperature is not the only thing. The first gesture is pouring slowly, in as thin a stream as you can manage, because a thick pour sets in a block on the outside before it can spread.
The second is stirring the broth in circles as you pour. That current stretches the strands and keeps them apart, exactly as in a Chinese egg drop soup. Leave the broth still and the egg gathers where it lands.
After pouring, stop stirring. The egg has set, and every extra turn breaks the ribbons into smaller and smaller pieces.
Four ways to add the egg
Beaten into ribbons is this recipe and gives the most even soup. A whole egg poached onto the broth below a simmer leaves a runny yolk and makes something closer to Colombian changua, which also has milk in it. Add cubed potatoes and fresh cheese to that milk broth and you are close to Venezuelan pisca andina.
If the broth has already boiled and you do not want to wait for it to come down, the honest answer is to scramble the egg separately and add it: firm pieces rather than ribbons, but far better than pouring beaten egg into boiling liquid and getting lumps.
The broth is the dish
With one egg and one potato per person, what holds this soup up is the broth. Homemade chicken stock, from a carcass simmered two hours, brings gelatin and body that no shortcut reproduces.
If you have none, water with a properly built sofrito beats a bouillon cube. The scallion and garlic give real flavour and save you the roughly 3,260 mg of sodium in a liter of bouillon-cube broth (chicken broth cubes prepared with water, 326 mg per 100 ml): over 800 mg a bowl before you salt it.
Potato cooking water works too and adds a little starch, which thickens slightly. What does not work is beef stock: it overpowers the egg, which is a delicate thing.
Where the 35 minutes go
Six minutes of sofrito, twenty of potato, a couple to bring the temperature down and one of egg. It is a pantry soup: potato, eggs, scallion and cilantro, things that are usually in the house.
Make it ahead
It does not reheat well — the egg ribbons toughen and shrink and the potato falls apart — so make what you will eat. What you can do is build the base ahead: the broth with the potato keeps 3 days in the fridge and reheats in 10 minutes, and you add fresh beaten egg at the last moment.
What goes wrong
Pouring the egg at 212°F. It breaks into lumps and clouds the soup.
Adding it all at once. It sets in a block instead of spreading into ribbons.
Not stirring the broth. The egg gathers where it lands.
Stirring after pouring. It shreds the ribbons you just made.
Reheating it. The egg toughens and the potato disintegrates.
Variations
With milk. A cup added at the end, which brings it close to Bogotá’s changua.
With leftover whites. If a batch of Colombian sabajón left you with egg whites, 2 beaten whites stand in for 1 whole egg in the ribbons.
With noodles. Two ounces of angel hair in the last 4 minutes.
With rice. A cup of yesterday’s white rice, which turns it into a one-bowl meal.
With tomato. One grated tomato in the sofrito, the Santander habit.
Whole eggs in tomato broth. Blend the broth with tomatoes and serrano chiles, slide the eggs in whole and poach them covered at a gentle simmer for 5 to 6 minutes, and you have Mexican huevos ahogados poached in tomato broth.
What to serve with it
On its own, in a deep 10-oz bowl, with griddled Colombian cheese arepas alongside and ají if you like. At 240 calories a bowl it takes bread or an arepa without guilt.
Among quick Colombian soups it sits beside Colombian changua, which solves breakfast in 15 minutes with milk, and Colombian chicken giblet soup, which is the version with meat in it. When the day calls for something bigger, Colombian ajiaco is the Sunday soup from the same kitchen. And if you have spare chicken stock, Mexican tortilla soup with pasilla chile turns it into dinner in 40 minutes.
Frequently asked questions
Why did my egg turn lumpy? The broth was boiling. It should steam without bubbling, about 180°F.
Beaten or whole? Beaten, for ribbons. Whole and poached below a simmer gives a runny yolk, which is a different dish; for pregnant women, young children, older adults and anyone immunocompromised, cook it until the yolk is firm (160°F) or use pasteurized eggs.
Can I reheat it? Not well. Keep the broth and potato instead, and add fresh egg when you reheat.
Is a bouillon cube fine? It works, but a liter of cube broth brings about 3,260 mg of sodium (over 800 a bowl) and a flat taste; if you use it, taste before adding any salt. Water with a good sofrito is better.
Is this the same as changua? No. Changua is made with milk and a whole egg; this one uses stock and beaten egg in ribbons.
Nutrition
Per bowl, a quarter of the pot, calculated from each ingredient in the recipe:
- Calories: 240 kcal
- Protein: 14 g
- Carbohydrates: 25 g
- Fat: 10 g, 2 g of it saturated
- Fibre: 3 g
- Sodium: 545 mg
This is a cheap, light soup: one egg and about 4 oz of potato a bowl. With unsalted homemade stock, almost all the sodium comes from the 4 g of salt (1,550 of the pot’s 2,180 mg). With a liter of regular boxed broth (371 mg per 100 ml) it would pass 1,000 mg a bowl even without added salt. With 6 eggs instead of 4, a bowl goes to about 275 calories and 17 g of protein.
This is the soup you make when there is nothing, which is why I have eaten it on both sides of the border: in Venezuela with more cilantro, in Colombia with more scallion. The first time I got real ribbons was the day I turned the heat off before adding the egg, out of fear of overcooking it. Josnaisis.