Sopa boba (Dominican vegetable soup) is an easy recipe for a lighter, meatless alternative to other soups in our blog. A nourishing and comforting food with deep roots in our cuisine, it is an inexpensive, uncomplicated soup that will be great for vegans and meat-eaters alike.
By - Reviewed: . Original: Dec 21, 2001
Why we ❤️ it
Sopa Boba is one of the stars of Dominican cuisine, a simple, light vegetable soup that, more often than not, we use when in need of comfort or nourishing sustenance. It's also a dish with a curious name.
What's sopa boba?
In Spanish, the word boba(o) can be used to describe someone who is "simple" or of limited intellectual capacity.
The Spanish "sopa boba" was a soup made with leftover food from convents around the thirteenth century and given to the destitute as a charity. The ingredients were of dubious provenance, and the flavor was lacking. It was a dish made strictly for sustenance, not for enjoyment.
The name for the Dominican soup may be taken from that old Spanish soup, but our sopa boba has little in common with that unglamorous concoction. What makes ours "boba" is the lack of meat in it, but there is a wealth of flavor and vegetables, some of which were not available to Spaniards in those days (yuca [cassava], for example).
It is most commonly associated with times in which we needed recovery and given credit for being of easy digestion. It can also be served as a light dinner, or at least that's how we did in my extended family.
Sopa boba dominicana.
Serving suggestions
Serve hot alongside toasted bread, like Pan sobao, or Pan de agua.
Top tips
- Vinegar: Typically, we use pineapple vinegar in the DR (it's cheaper, I guess), but apple cider vinegar is excellent in it.
- Cilantro: You may substitute cilantro for parsley if you prefer.
About this recipe
The common element in any sopa boba served in the Dominican Republic will be the lack of any meat. It's one of our quintessential vegan recipes. Adding any meat to it will make it into an altogether different dish. It also always have noodles (angel's hair).
Having said that, each home and each cook will have their preferred vegetables, usually yuca, auyama, and potatoes. Others will depend on availability and preference.
Do you add anything to your sopa boba that ours doesn't have? Please share it in the comments.
Video
Recipe
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Sopa Boba [Video+Recipe] Vegetable Soup
Ingredients
- 1 quart vegetable broth, [1 liter]
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar, (or any fruit vinegar)
- 1 cup potatoes, cut into small cubes
- 2 sprigs thyme, (optional)
- 7 allspice berries (malagüeta), (optional)
- 1 cup yuca (cassava), cut into small cubes
- 1 celery stalk, sliced
- 2 cloves garlic, sliced
- 1 cup auyama (kabocha squash), (West Indies pumpkin) cut into small cubes
- 1 cup angel hair noodles, (capellini)
- 1 sprig cilantro, chopped
- ¼ teaspoon pepper (freshly-cracked, or ground)
- 1 teaspoon salt
Instructions
1. Boiling the vegetables
Mix in a pot vegetable broth, 1 qt of water [1 liter], vinegar, potatoes, thyme, allspice berries, yuca, celery, garlic, and auyama.Bring to a boil over medium heat until it breaks a boil.
2. Cooking the noodles
Add the noodles and stir.Cook covered over medium heat until all the ingredients are cooked throughout. Stir occasionally to avoid sticking.
3. Seasoning
- Add cilantro and season with pepper and salt to taste. Discard allspice berries.
4. Serving
- Remove from the heat and serve hot.See serving suggestions above the recipe.
Nutrition
Nutritional information is calculated automatically based on ingredients listed. Please consult your doctor if you need precise nutrition information.
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More vegan dishes
This vegetable soup is one of many Dominican dishes that are perfectly suitable for a vegetarian or vegan diet. You can find many more Dominican vegan recipes, many of which we've developed from scratch, adapting Dominican classics to a vegan diet, like our Vegan sancocho, Vegan asopao, and many others that may require small changes (we provide instructions).
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