This sopa criolla or Peruvian Beef Noodle Soup is delicious and easy to prepare. All you need is a good sofrito, aji panca paste, tomato paste, and beef. This “creole soup” is a popular dish in Peruvian cuisine and for good reason! It’s a comforting soup with lots of flavour, and it’s also very filling. You can find it in Peruvian homes all around the world because the ingredients are quite simple to gather, and it takes us straight back home.
Origin of Peruvian sopa criolla
Peruvian sopa criolla or creole soup belongs to a subsection of Peruvian dishes called “comida criolla” or “creole food”. This set of Peruvian food originated during the Spanish colony. The dishes are the product of the blend of cultures between Andean dishes and Western cuisine. This subsection of Peruvian food later had influences from Afrodescendants, Italian, and Chinese immigrants. Sopa criolla, in particular, came from the blend of “chupi”, a traditional and nutritious Andean soup with Western ingredients such as pasta and milk.
Ingredients for Peruvian Beef Noodle Soup
- Vegetable oil: It all begins with a drizzle of oil. In general, Peruvian food uses vegetable oil, but you can also use olive oil if you prefer.
- Lean beef: Sopa criolla uses diced lean beef rather than ground beef. Ground meat is used in a similar Peruvian soup called sopa a la minuta or minute-made soup. It’s a quicker version with fewer ingredients.
- Red onion: Red onion is often used in Peruvian sofritos.
- Spices: Along with the red onion, we sautée oregano and a pinch of cumin.
- Garlic: We add the garlic to the onion once the latter is nice and golden to prevent the garlic from burning.
- Chopped tomatoes: The finely diced tomatoes are added and stirred in until they soften.
- Ají panca paste: Ají panca paste is a key ingredient in this recipe. Ají panca is a slightly smoky dried chili that adds much flavor to the soup. It’s quite easy to source outside of Peru, and you can often find it online or in Latino product stores.
- Tomato paste: Tomato paste is also used and adds the red color along with the ají panca.
- Water or beef stock: If you have it available, I recommend that you use beef stock as a liquid for the soup, but if it’s not handy, you can always use water.
- Evaporated milk: The soup is finished with a dash of evaporated milk to make it creamy.
- Vermicelli noodles: These thin noodles, also known as angel hair pasta in Peru, are added at the very end of the recipe since they only take a couple of minutes to cook through.
- Eggs: Each portion of the sopa criolla gets a fried egg (huevo frito) with that delicious runny yolk.
Step-by-step recipe for sopa criolla
Peruvian Sopa Criolla begins with a large pot. You will preheat it over high heat with a dash of oil. Then, add only half of the diced beef to sear it. We want to do this in small batches at a time to ensure that they become golden rather than boil in their own juices. Once ready, you will reserve the beef. In the same pot, add the onion along with the recipe’s spices for the sofrito and reduce to medium heat. After that, you and the garlic and tomato to soften it. We finish the sofrito with the ají panca paste and tomato paste. At this point, we add back the beef, add the beef stock or water, and a splash of evaporated milk. Add the vermicelli noodles just before serving, as they cook very quickly, and we want them al dente. To serve, add a fried egg to every dish along with a slice of crusty bread.
Reheating sopa criolla
As with any soup with pasta or noodles, you want to avoid storing the soup with the pasta in it. This is because, as time passes, the pasta absorbs liquid from the soup, becoming soft and breaking. If you’re preparing Peruvian Creole soup ahead of time, it’s best to have everything ready, but skip adding the noodles until it’s time to serve. Ideally, you will reheat the number of portions you need in a small saucepan, add the soup and enough noodles for the portions at hand. Let them cook for a couple of minutes and then serve immediately.
Peruvian Sopa Criolla Recipe
Ingredients
For the recipe
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 250 g diced beef
- 200 g red onion finely diced
- ¼ tsp cumin
- 1 tsp oregano
- 2 garlic cloves finely minced
- 200 g finely diced tomatoes
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 2 tbsp ají panca paste
- 1 L beef stock or water
- 70 ml evaporated milk
- 130 g vermicelli noodles / angel hair noodles
- Salt and pepper
For serving
- 5 eggs
Instructions
- Preheat a large pot over high heat. Add the oil and use it to sear approximately half of the diced beef. Season with salt and pepper. Reserve and repeat with the rest of the beef.
- In the same pot, add more oil if necessary, as well as the onion, oregano, and cumin. Stir using a spoon or spatula, using it to scrape the golden bits at the bottom of the pot from the beef and incorporating them into the onions.
- Once the onion is golden, add the garlic and stir for a minute.
- Add the tomato and cook it for a couple of minutes or until it softens.
- Add the tomato paste and ají panca paste and stir constantly for a couple of minutes or until a thick paste forms.
- Add the beef back in, along with the beef stock or water, and stir.
- Add the evaporated milk and bring everything to a boil. Taste and correct the level of salt.
- Add the noodles and let them cook for a couple of minutes.
- Serve each portion with a fried egg.
