Sopa de Te’qo (Semana Santa Vegetable Soup)

Semana Santa is one of my favorite times in Bolivia, we cook and eat a lot surrounded by family. I have loved this soup since I can remember and I love everything about it. My favorite part of this dish’s preparation is the egg part. I remember starring at my mom making miniscule cracks in the top of the egg and pouring into the soup. After that she gave us the empty eggshells to play with. This an easy quick soup to make and has so much flavor, the tricky part is the preparation of the potatoes but it’s so much fun. It’s so delicious, enjoy it!

Makes: 8 portions

Ingredients:

10 cups of Water or Broth

1 cup thinly cut Achojacha (This is a Bolivian ingredient that you can skip if unavailable)

5 leaves of yerbabuena (This is a Bolivian ingredient that you can skip if unavailable)

1/4 cup diced green pepper

1 small onion diced in small pieces (1/2 cup)

1 small peeled and diced tomato

1 cup carrots cut in thin strips

2 cups sliced green beans

2 tbs canola oil

1 tsp salt

1 large clove garlic

1/4 tsp cumin

5 large potatoes peeled and diced

1/2 cup frozen peas

1 cup thinly cut spinach

2 eggs

2 tbs scallion thinly cut and washed

2 tbs cut parsley

2 tbs cut cilantro

1 tsp oregano

Preparation:

Put together the ingredients

Peel and cut the potatoes in eight pieces.  Crush the potatoes pieces on a cutting board with a meat softener until they are small chunky pieces. They should still be in pieces but be cracked open. Put the pieces of potatoes in a bowl with water and reserve.

Cut the vegetables as shown in the pictures. Pepper, onion and tomato are diced, carrots and achojcha are cut crosswise and beans are cut diagonally.

Mix all the the cut vegetables together. Put the water to boil.

Cook the vegetables in oil and add the salt. Cook until tender for about 5 min.

Add this mixture to the boiling water. Grind together the garlic and cumin and add to the soup. Simmer the soup for 15 min. Remove any foam that might form.

Remove the potatoes from the water and add to the soup. Is very important to save the water where the potatoes have been sitting. The potato starch is at the bottom of the bowl and will be used to thicken our soup.

Slowly drain the water and save the starch at the bottom and add it to the soup. This step is very important to make your soup nice and thick.

Cook the potaoes for 10 min and add the peas and spinach.

Reduce the heat. Turn on the stove. Crack the top of the eggs and pour them into the soup, you have to shake the egg while your pour it in and stir the soup at the same time (a second person can help here). Turn off the stove

Chop and wash the scallions.
Add to the soup and mix. Crush oregano in your hands and add to the soup

Cut the parsley and cilantro and top each plate before serving

This soup is healthy and delicious, I love everything about this soup! In bolivia we have el batan and we use this flat stone to crush the potaoes. I miss some tools from Bolivia and the Batan is one of them. Enjoy!