Sopa Paraguaya – Paraguayan Corn Bread
The only soup in the world you eat with a fork — because sopa paraguaya is not a soup, it is a savoury corn cake: golden outside, moist inside, with softened onions and plenty of cheese. It belongs to Guaraní cooking and is eaten in Paraguay as much as in north-eastern Argentina.
Careful with the flour: this takes ordinary fine cornmeal, not pre-cooked cornmeal (Harina P.A.N.) and not polenta. The pre-cooked kind binds instantly and gives a rubbery mass instead of a light crumb — and all three sit on the same shelf with similar names.
The whipped egg whites are what make it airy.
🔎 What is precooked corn flour? — where it comes from, what goes in it and how it differs.
Ingredients
- 500 g ordinary fine cornmeal (not pre-cooked, not polenta)
- 500 g fresh or mild melting cheese, in cubes or crumbled
- 4 eggs, separated
- 3 large onions, chopped
- 150 g butter (or lard)
- 500 ml whole milk
- 1 tbsp coarse salt
- Extra butter and cornmeal for the tin
Method
- 1
Soften the onion in half of the butter with the coarse salt until it is properly tender and sweet, without letting it brown. Let it cool a little.
- 2
In a large bowl, beat the remaining soft butter with the egg yolks. Stir in the softened onion, the crumbled cheese and the milk, alternating with the cornmeal, until you have a moist, even mixture.
- 3
Whip the egg whites to stiff peaks and fold them in with sweeping movements: they are what gives sopa paraguaya its characteristic light crumb. Stirred in rather than folded, the air collapses and it comes out dense.
- 4
Tip it into a tin buttered and dusted with cornmeal, in a layer about 4 cm deep.
- 5
Bake at 200 °C for 40 to 45 minutes, until it is golden outside and a knife comes out of the centre only slightly moist. Let it rest for 10 minutes and cut into squares. It is good warm or cold, on its own or alongside grilled meat.