Egg Leek Soup

In a fit of Mexican food craving, I marked several recipes from Diana Kennedy's 544 page oevre: The Essential Cuisines of Mexico. The recipe for Sopa de Puerros from Oaxaca caught my eye more than most, so we put it in the menu rotation for the week. In typical style, when I went to make it tonight, I couldn't resist modifying it just a bit based on our ingredient availability and my general preferences.

E and I agreed, it's quite tasty, and also, quite unique. (Plus, it's very healthy).


-3 leeks, white and light green portions diced into 1 cm squares or smaller
-1 cup of chopped parsely
-4 T butter
-6 hard-boiled or hard-cooked eggs, separated into diced whites and yolks
-1 box chicken broth (1 L)
-5 thai chiles
-4 corn tortillas, sliced into 1 cm wide ribbons of 2-3 cm length

1. Scatter tortillas in a baking pan and bake at 400 F
2. Place stockpot over medium heat and melt butter.
3. Add leeks and parsely and cook approximately 8 minutes.
4. Add broth. Add whole chiles. Bring to a boil. Lower to a simmer and cook for 10 minutes.
5. Remove tortillas from oven, douse with some olive oil and toss before allowing to cool.
6. Beat yolks into simmering broth, mashing against the side of the pan to get as much to dissolve into the broth as possible.
7. Remove soup from heat, mix in chopped egg whites and allow to cool briefly.
8. Ladle into large bowls, top with tortilla strips and serve immediately.


Lucky_girl often laughs whenever I describe what I cooked for E & me for dinner. She often claims that what I make couldn't possibly be enough food. And, I guess, with a soup like this, which the recipe claims serves 6, I could see her point. But, the secret is -- we're into big servings.

With this soup, we solved the problem by dividing it into 2 servings, and we each enjoyed a substantial dinner of roughly 1.5 leeks, 2 T butter, 1/2 cup parsely, 1/2 liter broth, 3 eggs, 2 corn tortillas, 1 T olive oil, and 2.5 thai chiles.

Enjoy!