Changua (Colombian Bread and Egg Soup)

Two things: 1. Use unsweetened rice milk if you’re lactose intolerant. It’s just as good! 2. Day old or stale French bread is the best. If it’s not a little hard, you can toast it.

This was not for me. Incredibly bland. Tested like hot milk with some random additions of cheese, herbs and egg. Maybe if I had a hangover….

My husband is half Colombian and grew up eating this on dreary mornings: memories we continue to create with our family in the wilds of Wyoming on blustery, grey days (we call them Changua days). Thanks Kenji, for the love that comes through your version!

I make something similar to this for breakfast every day: mix 1/4 cup chia seeds with 1/2 cup hot water or chicken stock, stir until thick (a minute or so). Top with cheese such as Monterey Jack, and heat in microwave to melt it. Fry two eggs over easy, put in chia seed bowl, top with spring onion, salt, pepper. Mix and enjoy. It’s like eggs and grits.

On a trip to Colombia, I was served changua for breakfast, and found it to be a quintessential comfort food. I told myself I would remember what it was called and look up a recipe when I got home. My memory failed me. Thank you, Kenji López-Alt, for allowing me to prepare it tonight, when it was just what I needed. I made it according to the recipe (with chicken stock), threw in a few chick peas that were in my fridge and needed to be used up, and it was delicious.

I’ll make anything Kenji suggests. I had homemade chicken broth and heavy cream. I used all chicken broth and put in 1/4 cup heavy cream. I had extra mache greens, potatoes and shredded mozzarella as well as aji Amarillo—-yeah yeah I know it’s not the recipe but the point being you can doctor up this soup any which way and you’ll end up with something delicious. Bottom line a soup in the morning with whatever you have leftover and eggs with cheese is a great way to start your day.

I use brazilian pan de queso with the changua. It is a good substitute to almojabanas. And if you would like it spicy, I use some tabasco drops after serving.

I prefer the "caldo de huevo"....from the Santander region, just a bit of potatoes, a bit of milk to make it silky, cilantro, a bit of scallion, salt and couple of poach eggs...some people add bits of "tostao" or stale bread, I prefer not to, simple but delicious. :)

This reminds me of a soup my mom made for healing and comfort. She called it Macaroni and Milk. Basically elbow macaroni, milk, water, butter salt and pepper. If she were feeling fancy, she’d melt in a slice of American cheese. Real hard scrabble New England Yankee comfort food.

Thank you for sharing this for a flash of memories from my childhood in Colombia.

I really loved this! I thought the broth was especially delicious, and it was a grey, drizzly cold spring day, this cheered me up immensely! I used a container of homemade croutons that I had made from baguettes, from the freezer, so there was some herbs and spices in this soup as a result. I also used a tablespoon of Knorr's chicken granules instead of salt.....

I remember driving to villa de lleya at the crack of dawn, from Bogota, when we stopped at a little truck stop in the road. It was cold, we were half asleep still and yet the giant cauldron of changua was most welcoming. Hot milky soup with a dropped egg and that soaked bread...YUMMM!

I made this when Kenji posted it on his youtube channel. Didn't have cheese though, so had to leave that out. Still, it was pretty good!