Changua

Changua is a milk soup with poached eggs. In the central Andes region, it is a poular breakfast soup, especially when its cold outside. Changua is associated with the Boyacá and Cundinamarca departments, including Bogotá.

This soup has Muisca origins, and the name changua comes from Chibcha (Muysccubun), a language spoken by the Muisca. Today, this language is nearly extinct, but some of the words have made their way into Colombian Spanish – such as the names of several popular food dishes. The ancestral home of the Muisca is the central highlands (Altiplano Cundiboyacense) of Colombia.

Changua recipe

Ingredients (4 servings)

  • 4 cups of milk
  • 2 cups of water
  • 3 scallions
  • Salt & Pepper, to taste
  • 4 eggs
  • 1/2 cup of chopped fresh cilantro, plus some extra for garnish

Instructions

  1. Bring milk and water to a boil in a pot. While you wait for the liquid to boil, chop the scallions.
  2. Add scallions to the liquid in the pot, together with salt and pepper. Cook for 3 minutes over medium-high heat.
  3. Reduce the heat to medium.
  4. Crack open an egg and carefully add its contents (not the shell) to the soup, making sure not to break it. You want to make poached eggs, not mix the eggs into the soup liquid. Continue with the other three eggs.
  5. Let the eggs cook for 3 minutes.
  6. Add 1/2 cup of chopped cilantro.
  7. Pour into serving bowls and garnish with more cilantro.

Buttered stale bread (“calado”) is often served as a side dish to changua. You put the bread into the soup – this way the stale bread gets soft again. Putting pieces of cheese in the soup and letting them melt will make the soup even more filling.

In Bogotá, a version of changua where chicken stock is used instead of water is popular.