Ah Spain!

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Buenos, welcome to a Spain Poco Poco.
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Hey Tanya,
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how's it going?
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Buyenne.
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Um, today we're going to talk about
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gaspachos and Spanish soups. And I mean,
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it's not just gaspachos. There are
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plenty of others, but we all know that
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one. So, that probably gets the
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forefront here. Yeah, that's pretty much
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the internationally renowned soup of
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Spain or soapa as they say.
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Soapa de Spain,
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soapa de espa.
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Yes. And even here, I will say it. Well,
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anyway, where we are in Valencia, it's
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probably one of the most popular. You
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find it in those like milk cartons in
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the supermarket is one of the three
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pre-made food things that you can find.
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Yes. And they come in liters. They come
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in little like Capri Suniz ones too for
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if you need your gaspacho on the go
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and bottles they come in they come in
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plastic. I mean literally you can buy
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gpacho various kinds. So it does mean
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you don't have to make it yourself. I
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don't eat it anyway cuz I don't eat
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tomatoes but
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it looks it looks appetizing even for
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me.
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We always have some in our we I don't
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make it anymore because it's so readily
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available and back in the states I would
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make it every summer. This now I can
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just buy it and
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No, you don't have to. And the ones that
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you the ones that are already made are
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good. So you haven't Yeah. So that Okay,
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that's good to know. So it's not like
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you're Yeah. And cheap
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cuz like a liter is like 150. I ain't
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making that for 150. That's true. Do you
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know what I mean?
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That's true.
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Well, let's start with, you know, the
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ancient roots of the Spanish soups go
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back to Romans and Morris influences and
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those ingredients from that time would
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be sort of we have got olive oil, garlic
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and some spices. I mean this, you know,
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most of these recipes I don't see a lot
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of spices going in to be honest, but
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the olive oil, garlic for sure, right?
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Olive oil, garlic, um you Spain was the
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crossroads, right? So it's it was the
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crossroads of the Mediterranean. So we
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brought all these ingredients and and
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using them and and and depending on the
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region, right? So the northern scenes,
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the the northern Spain has your heartier
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soups and down here we get the
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gaspachos. I mean now you can get all
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the soups everywhere because it's
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obviously Spain because it's Spain cuz
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things travel now. Um so let's start
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with we'll go through it regionally. So
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let's start with Gpacho which is Gpacho.
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Gaspacho. Let's call it Gpacho maybe
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since that's what it's called from and
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Lucia as we were just talking about.
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It's a cold soup. Um and that is because
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it is in that hotter pot of Spain. So
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that's um it did have it did start
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without tomatoes actually. Did you know
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that before we did this research?
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I did not because like I said, I'm not
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really into Gaspatcher, so I haven't
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been thinking about it a lot myself. But
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that is an interesting thing actually. I
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think so. The earlier versions go back
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to the Roman times and the Roman
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soldiers were carrying bread, garlic,
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olive oil, vinegar, and water, and they
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would pound all that together to create
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a cold soup. And that was I mean, I
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could see that would make a really good
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sort of survival soup, right?
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I don't know about good, but it would
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get you through. I mean, good as in um
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necessity.
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Good necessity. Exactly.
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I mean, you've got the bread, the garlic
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is good for you. You've got some fat and
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the olive oil and maybe a little bit of
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flavor from the vinegar and who knows
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what else comes with that. So, I mean,
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it's, you know, better than literally
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just drinking water, I would order water
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and bread, I would say. And then
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obviously it came from the Anzalucia
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region like we said. And it wasn't until
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the 16th century that tomatoes and
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peppers arrived from the Americas and
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they adapted this soup to add those
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vegetables and create the red gpacho
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that we know today.
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Yes. Which is quite delicious. And it is
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it is quintessentially a the essence of
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summer. It's hydrating. It's cooling. Um
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it it's I know you don't like tomatoes,
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but for those who do, it is wonderful,
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you know.
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Yes. And it it's very easy to make.
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We're not a cooking show, so we're not
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going to go through it all. But really,
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you get these ingredients, you blend
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them together, you chill them, and
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you're good to go. So, potatoes,
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peppers, cucumbers, you know, you have
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to do the stale bread that gives it kind
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of the the hardiness to it
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and your olive oil and your vinegar
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vinegar, your salt, your pepper, all
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that. But it it's so easy to make,
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but it's easier to buy it for a jug for
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152 nowadays.
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For sure. I mean, it does kind of seem
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like a drinkable salad, so maybe there's
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some people that can get behind that
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because it does also has the tomatoes,
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the peppers, the cucumbers in it. So,
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that's kind of I mean, maybe you could
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go throw some lettuce in there, too, and
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no one would notice. I don't know. I'm
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sure there's variations where people are
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adding all sorts of things and also
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spices, which and obviously if you're
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going to make it at home, I'm sure if
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you make it at home, you're adding some
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other little flavors to it. There are
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some regional variations. Cordoba has
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the salo salora saloro, excuse me, which
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is thicker, creamier, and they top it
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with eggs and ham, which I see a lot of
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the soups here being topped with eggs
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and ham. I've seen that when I've been
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given soups here. That is I mean,
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they're not or they're giving it to you
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to add. It's not like coming with it
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usually.
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Right. Right. Ham in Spain, get out of
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here.
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I know. Anyway, I mean, if this just
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proves that something doesn't have ham
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in it, it needs to be added on top.
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If it wasn't blended in to start with,
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you know what's also interesting, Tanya,
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is that there's a white gpacho that I
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hadn't heard of or tried called an a
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blanco and that comes from the Malaga
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region and it's made with almonds and
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garlic and the bread, but no tomato, no
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other vegetables. And I've seen they
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sprinkle it with white grapes. So, this
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or green grapes. So, this is interesting
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to me.
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I might like that one. So, AO Blanco is
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like, you know, white garlic. So, you
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know, in the name it's the white soup. I
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mean, I might like that one. I don't
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know. I definitely haven't had it. And
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it sounds a little bit more like maybe
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the original one before the tomatoes
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came in, you know, and I don't know if
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that
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they added some garlic and stuff and
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almonds, whatever they had laying
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around.
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Worth a try.
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Worth a try.
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Okay, our next soup comes from Galacia.
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And this also doesn't have tomatoes, so
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I like this one. I think although
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funnily enough I think I've had this
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even though so obviously even though
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these soups are from different regions
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they're everywhere now and we've had
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this for sure in a local and we went up
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to a local town and we had this in a
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soup in in a in a party up there like a
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street party. So this is hardy winter
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soup which makes sense. It's from a
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cooler part of Spain and it's with like
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beans and it has meat and it has greens
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in it. And this is you can see how this
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is really a a hot comfort food like
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soup, you know.
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Now you've had it. Is it stewy like
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where you can see the ingredients or is
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it an emulsion soup like gpacho?
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The one we had and I didn't know what it
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was. It looked like this. To me it looks
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very much like the Moroccan soups like
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you can see all the bits and then it has
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and then they're also cooking down the
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the meat which can be chiso or bacon or
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anything. obviously more likely to be
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some kind of pork think pork product
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here that is also cooked down in it to
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give flavor to the soup. So this is a
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very like meaty beanie uh soup and yeah
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you can see all the bits in it. It's not
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it's not a it's not whizzed up after
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that. So it's a I would also say a very
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nourishing soup.
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A stick to your ribs kind of soup it
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looks like. Right.
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Very hearty winter soup. And even though
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it does, you know, it doesn't get as
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cold here as it does in the northern
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parts of Spain, we still like a good hot
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soup in the winter, right?
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Yeah. So, the next soup is one of my
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favorites. And there's kind of two
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variations. And I've made this and it's
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a it is a crowd-pleaser, which is the
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soap soap castana, uh, which comes from
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the Castia
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region, which is in the north. And this
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is a garlic soup, and it's made with
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bread and lots of paprika. And the the
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variations is there's the the soapa
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castana has a poached egg and the what
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they call just ao soup. It has a beaten
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egg. It's like an egg drop soup, but
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they're both prepared initially the kind
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of same way.
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And it's a it's a it's a tons of garlic.
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It's like a whole head of garlic is
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going in this thing. And a big
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tablespoon of smoked paprika. And
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so not enough garlic basically. You
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could add more.
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No. No. You could add more. Yes.
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Never enough garlic as far as I know. is
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what you do with that like uh baguette
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that you forgot to buy that you forgot
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to eat that you bought 4 days ago. Now
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you can like hammer a nail into the wall
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with it. That's what you use for this
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soup. And so I've I've made it and I've
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had it and I love it. And it's the thing
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that I'm I'm going to just speak so
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lovely about this is it actually tastes
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like you're eating like a beef stew
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because of the paprika and the the
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there's so much bread in it. It's very
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thick. So it it is hearty and it does
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stick to your ribs as well. It's very
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amazing when you're like, how did this
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thing that tastes like
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this come from so little? Right.
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Yeah. And I do it's a holy week se Yeah.
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And I do think the all what all these
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have in common if they have bread in
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them, it's designed to be the stale
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bread. You're not putting good bread in
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there. This is what you do with with
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bread, you know, in what we do with it
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usually is we grind it up and bread
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things, you know, but over here it gets
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thrown in a soup. Much healthier.
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Yeah. You definitely don't want to use
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fresh bread cuz then it would just be
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mush. Like you do need the because it
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needs to absorb the things. It's weird
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how that works. I think it's like
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science or chemistry or something. But
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anyway,
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I mean, this is why I don't like to bake
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because I don't want to get into the
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chemistry of cooking, but
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you just say that's a fact. That's
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what's going to happen. Um, and then
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that one is with the eggs that are
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beaten into the broth. So, does that
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kind of remind me of like what they do
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with the ch with the Chinese soups where
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you where you
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Yeah. Yeah. So, the Aaho soup, which is
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the beaten eggs, you you drizzle them in
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as you're stirring it at the end to cook
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at the end, right?
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Yeah. So, it is like but there's a lot
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more egg than like a traditional egg
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drop soup. So, it it becomes a very
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thick
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porridgey stewy type consistency where
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one um is more brothier. It's more
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watery and the Aaho soup is more creamy.
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Like it has a more creamier consistency.
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Nice. And then um lastly for our last
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soup, we have the Fabada Atoriana, which
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is also I think like a little bit like
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the other one that that I was talking
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about is like a bean stew soup and that
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one has
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sometimes a mix of meats in it. So that
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can have a chisso um it can have the
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mochilla which I don't like that that's
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the blood sausage everybody.
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Um I'm from England. We have it there. I
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won't eat it there either. I'm not
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starting now.
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Um, you could have a cured p pork
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shoulder in there and then you you have
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the beans that are soaked overnight and
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then everything simmering together to
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create a a broth and that happen. So
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that's long hours of of kind of of
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stewing and everything together until
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the beans become tender and everything
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is infused with the flavors of the meat.
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So this this dish apparently is never
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stirred because you don't want to break
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the beans. So the pot is shaken gently.
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Ah okay.
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So that it doesn't go everywhere. So
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that I think is a really interesting
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one. And I I think this is definitely
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feels like a very sort of very hearty uh
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very hearty soup and it's made with
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fattes deanha which is large Atorian
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white beans and they're cooked until
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creamy. I'm not a huge bean fan so I
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don't know if this is going to be on my
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list. I think the Aaho soup sounds more
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like up my alley and I might have to
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bribe you to make that one since you've
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made it before because it sounds really
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good.
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I'll do that. I can do that for you.
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Thank you.
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What I'd like to say to our listeners
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that if you do decide to to move here or
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you're for an extended stay. What you'll
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notice in the grocery stores here versus
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like the States and in in England is
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there's not a lot of soups on the
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shelves. You're making stuff at home.
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There's canned soup culture is not a
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thing. But this soup isn't cans on the
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shelf. This one you can readily find at
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the grocery stores as a canned soup.
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You're not going to find New England
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clam chowder, but you'll get this one.
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Yeah, I haven't looked, I will say. So,
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I think that gives us a little bit of an
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overview of all the soups. If any, like
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you said, if anyone comes here and you
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do try them, let us know cuz we haven't
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tried them all and Gano hasn't made them
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all yet, but maybe that'll be a
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challenge you're up for.
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So, that's soups.
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All right, till the next Poco Poco
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Tanya,
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see you later.
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Thank you for listening to us Poco Poco.
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Yes, we would. Till the next episode.
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Bye.
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