Sweet Spanish Almond Soup Recipe

We have a large number of Spanish soup recipes on our blog, and they all have some special features, but none takes it to the extreme like this one.

We are talking about the Spanish almond soup, but make no mistake, we are not talking about the typical recipe with garlic, but it is one of the most famous dessert soups in all of Spain.

In this article, you will learn how to make the recipe, learn more about its history and what makes it different from other Spanish soups, along with other tips to customize it.

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Background of the Dish

The Spanish almond soup is one of the most common recipes to make at Christmas time in Spain. In fact, it is one of the most popular desserts.

Not only because it has a large amount of cinnamon, which is one of the classic flavors of Christmas, but also because it has a history closely related to religion.

The recipe for Spanish almond soup is believed to have been created by nuns from a Catholic church to repurpose the leftover marzipan, and the rest is history.

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Things You’ll Need for Spanish Almond Soup 

To make this Spanish almond soup you only need milk, almond paste, cinnamon, lemon peel, and stale bread. 

Even with those few ingredients, you can make changes, so there are no excuses.

Do you want to fill your personal cookbook with almond recipes? Then try other Andalusian gems like the Spanish almond cookies or the Spanish almond cake.

Ingredients

• 100 gr of almond paste (or 5 tablespoons of any nut spread)
• 2 cups (500 ml)milk
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 lemon peel
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 2 pieces of stale bread (stale bread so it doesn’t fall apart in the soup when cooking)
• Powdered cinnamon (for garnish)
• Almonds (to decorate)

How to Make Spanish Almond Soup  – Step by Step Guide

1. To start making this sweet Spanish soup recipe you have to clean the lemon so no dirt gets into the preparation. Peel it and keep the lemon skin.

2. Then put the milk, cinnamon, and lemon peel in a large pot. Take it to the stove over medium and heat until foamy but without boiling, then remove from heat and let stand for 10 minutes.

3. Remove the cinnamon stick and the lemon peel, and add the almond paste and the teaspoon of sugar (it is optional because sometimes the almond paste already comes with a lot of sugar). This paste is usually sold as a cylinder that already comes in 100g, but otherwise, you can use 5 tablespoons of nut spread.

4. Take to the stove over medium heat and cook, stirring so that it dissolves. When it is dissolved, leave it on low heat.

5. In the meantime, cut the pieces of stale bread. As soon as you finish cutting them, place them in the pot with the sweet soup and turn up the heat.

6. Now, mix until the bread has been completely soaked.

7. After that, you can remove the pot from the heat and serve the milk soup.

8. For the final step, you can put some ground cinnamon and almonds on top of each plate. This is an optional step, but it will take your Spanish almond soup to the next level.

Substitution of Ingredients

You can play a lot with some of the ingredients in this Spanish soup.

First of all, you can change the flavorings. Instead of cinnamon and lemon peel, you can use vanilla extract. Anyway, cinnamon is a must in this recipe.

Like other soup recipes with milk, you can use plant-based milk without any problem. In fact, almond milk can be a fantastic replacement to give Spanish almond soup a nutty boom.

If you can’t get it in the store, you can make Almond paste following the marzipan recipe.

And if you like marzipan, make sure you try the Spanish marzipan cookies.

You can also use any nut spread (such as Nutella), or even another type of spread (dulce de leche, jams, etc.). 

Approximately 5 tablespoons are indicated for the replacement of the ingredients to be successful.

Tips on Serving Spanish Almond Soup 

This almond milk soup is the perfect dessert for the Christmas season. However, you can also eat it for breakfast or an afternoon snack.

This sweet soup is meant to be served hot, but in some parts of the world, it is eaten cold.

When this recipe arrived in Latin America, people loved it but it was too hot there to eat it hot, so they started serving it cold. 

You can do the same, you just have to leave it in the fridge for a couple of hours.

To elevate this almond soup to the maximum you can give it more texture by adding whole (or chopped) almonds or any other type of nut on top when you serve it.

You can even add some of your favorite dried fruits. They’ll give your Spanish almond soup a rich texture and an incredible flavor.

You can take inspiration from other creamy Spanish desserts like the Spanish crema catalana, Spanish fried milk, or Spanish vanilla custard.

How to Store Spanish Almond Soup 

The best thing about sweet soups is that they last longer than regular soups, although there are not as many ways to store them.

For example, if you want to keep this Spanish almond soup in the fridge, it can last up to 7 days. Then you just have to heat it up or serve it cold.

We do not recommend freezing this soup, as milk cooked like this tends to crystallize, so it will not have a good texture.

If you are looking for desserts or breakfasts that can be frozen, then try making Spanish chocolate chip cookies.

Recipe Card: Spanish Almond Soup

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