Recipe
🍽️ DINNER
Sopa Paraguaya
The famous "soup you can slice": a rich cornbread of onions, cheese, and corn flour, born of a happy kitchen accident.
Paraguayan · easy · serves 8
prep 20 min · cook 45 min
~466 cal · 25g protein · 32g carbs · 26g fat · 2g fiber · 5g sugars · 15g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Sopa paraguaya, despite its name, is not a soup at all but a savoury cornbread, and Paraguayans delight in calling it the world's only solid soup. It is a genuine national dish, present at asados, family meals, and celebrations across the country.
Legend traces it to the 19th-century president Carlos Antonio Lopez, whose cook supposedly added too much cornmeal to a soup and, rather than waste it, baked the thick mixture into a bread. Made from corn flour, onions, cheese, milk, and eggs, it bakes into a rich, moist, golden loaf.
Dense, cheesy, and satisfying, it is served in squares alongside grilled meat or on its own. Sopa paraguaya reflects a cuisine built on corn and dairy, and its funny name and happy-accident origin are a source of national affection.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally gluten- and nut-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 8
2 cups coarse corn flour (harina de maíz)
2 onions, sliced
2 cups queso paraguayo or feta and mozzarella, crumbled
1.5 cups milk
4 eggs, separated
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 cup butter or pork fat
Instructions
1
Soften the onions in the butter with salt; cool slightly.
2
Mix the corn flour, milk, yolks (or aquafaba-oil), cheese, salt, pepper, and the onions with their fat into a thick batter.
✎ Chef’s note
No whole corn kernels go in. Sopa paraguaya is made from corn flour alone; the version built on fresh corn is a different dish, chipa guazú.
3
Whip the whites (or remaining aquafaba) to soft peaks and fold through, this is what keeps the "soup" tender.
4
Bake in a greased pan at 375°F for 40-45 minutes until golden and set.
5
Rest 15 minutes and slice into squares. Serve warm beside grilled anything, or alone with mate.
Asunción national tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Asunción. The story that a president's cook added too much corn flour and renamed the accident is a good one, but historians dispute it. What is documented is older and duller: Cario-Guarani breads of corn and cassava meeting the dairy and eggs that arrived once Spanish cattle reached Asuncion in 1556.
🗺️
Paraguay. Sopa paraguaya is not a soup and never was: it is a dense cornbread with cheese and onion, baked in a tray and cut into squares, and its name is one of the reliable traps for outsiders. Chipa, the cheese-and-cassava-starch ring, is the other everyday bread, sold from baskets on buses and long-distance roads.
🌍
South America. Migration reworked the plate within living memory. Japanese arrivals in Peru and Brazil produced Nikkei cooking, Italians made pasta and pizza entirely ordinary in Argentina, Uruguay and Sao Paulo, and West African cooking carried into Bahia by the slave trade gave Brazil dende palm oil, okra and a whole ritual repertoire.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Paraguay
MbejúA chewy, crisp-edged starch-and-cheese griddle cake, gluten-free and pan-cooked to order, eaten with cocido at daybreak.
Vori VoriA golden chicken broth thick with little cornmeal-and-cheese dumplings, Paraguay's warming everyday soup.
Dulce de MamónGreen papaya slow-cooked in clove-and-cinnamon syrup until translucent and jammy, a Paraguayan pantry sweet.
Browse all Paraguay recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Oven.
Storing it: Keeps 3 to 4 days refrigerated and reheats covered in the oven. Most bakes can be assembled a day ahead and baked when needed.
Make it a Paraguay meal
TereréDrink
Dulce de MamónDessert
Chipa GuasúLunch
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Cuisine
Diet
Frequently asked questions
What is Sopa Paraguaya?
The famous "soup you can slice": a rich cornbread of onions, cheese, and corn flour, born of a happy kitchen accident.
Where does Sopa Paraguaya come from?
Sopa Paraguaya is a Paraguayan dish from Asunción, Paraguay.
Can Sopa Paraguaya be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Sopa Paraguaya recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Sopa Paraguaya safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Sopa Paraguaya take to make?
About 65 minutes total (20 minutes prep, 45 minutes cooking), serving 8.
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