Maltese Cuisine

Widow's soup (soppa tal-armla)

Cuisine: Maltese Created by Alexandra Vella

A simple, delicious soup made with fresh vegetables and frozen or dried soaked broad beans, it’s healthy and low fat. If you can find soft gbejniet cheese to pop into the hot soup just before serving, you have a beautiful molten soft cheese in the centre of your bowl.

Ingredients

1 onion, diced
3 to 4 cloves garlic, crushed
2 potatoes, peeled and chopped
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
1 kohlrabi, peeled and chopped
1 cup broad beans
2 celery sticks, sliced
1 cup peas
½ or a small cauliflower cut into bite size pieces
½ cup chopped parsley, plus extra for garnish
Gbejniet (Maltese cheese), allow one per person
Stock - enough to cover vegetables (chicken or vegetable)
1 ½ tbsp tomato paste
Salt & pepper to taste
1 tbsp each of butter and olive oil

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Preparation

Sauté garlic, onion and parsley in the butter and olive oil until soft.

Add potato, carrot, kohlrabi, broad beans, celery, peas and cauliflower.

Pour in stock and tomato paste. Stir well and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Bring to the boil, cover and simmer for about 15 to 20 minutes, until the vegetables are just cooked.

Add gbejniet and press down lightly to submerge. Cover and cook for a couple of minutes to heat through.

Garnish with parsley and stir through.

Serve with one piece of gbejniet in each bowl.

Maltese Restaurants

Displaying 4 of 4 Maltese Restaurants.

Restaurant		Suburb
1.	The Original Maltese Cafe	Surry Hills
2.	Maha Bar & Grill	Melbourne
3.	Pastizzi Cafe	Newtown
4.	Cafe Valletta	Sydney

14 Apr 2012 10:15 AEST

pat

bomnyrigg

widows soup

there should poached eggs in this soup!

28 Feb 2012 03:11 AEST

Diane

Sydney, St Clair

Pure Maltese :P

I would like to start by saying thankyou to whoever posted this recipe .... my mum makes it really YUMMY :))) ... gbejniet are the best :) ... this is one of the best recipe the maltese people have in their cuisine ..... proud to be Maltese :)))

14 May 2011 01:44 AEST

Leticia Avierkiieva

USA

Soppa ta' l-Armla

Dear Sir or Madam, My name is Leticia Avierkiieva and I am a contributor at www.mycitycuisine.org, a wiki project. I am currently working on an article about Soppa ta' l-Armla for the project, and am in need of a photo for the article. Can I use the http://www.sbs.com.au/food/foodsafarirecipe/index/id/113/n/Widow's_soup_(soppa_tal-armla)? Best regards, Leticia Avierkiieva (gourmand86@yahoo.com)

12 Mar 2010 10:57 AEST

Jane S

Mill Park

Not exactly traditional

Firstly I would like to thank Jacquie for info on the Preston Market as a source for buying the gbejniet. My memory is that the soup should contain green and white veges. A portion of ricotta per person is heated prior to serving and an egg would be poached in the soup prior to serving each person. Does anyone agree? Oh, and Eunice, you made me laugh!!

28 Feb 2010 12:07 AEST

john

calwell act 2905

3 stars

eggs broken in stew hard boild mising

30 May 2009 12:44 AEST

Brian

Potts Point

where an i buy gbejniet in central sydney

Does anyone know where i can buy this cheese - the best i could find was someone in Bondi junction who used to stock it 2 years ago.

14 May 2009 03:52 AEST

Jacquie

Coburg

gbejniet at Preston Market

Found some gbejniet at the preston market, from the aurora bakery for all the cheese hungry Maltese people reading this. My soup is on the stove right now and i m so excited can barely wait the 20 minutes. It's been 7 years since i last tasted proper cheese. Although it's not made by nana from our own sheep's milk, i'm sure it'll be great!

17 Jan 2009 10:07 AEST

Sharon

Hong Kong

Changes

I used a tin of tomatoes in addition and added a few spoonfuls of cream cheese as well as the gbejniet, simmered it for 30 mins instead of 15, and it was LOVELY... you can't go wrong with this, unless you use really bad stock...

08 Jan 2009 04:11 AEST

Eunice

Deer Park

Disappointing

Despite following this recipe to the letter, my husband is, unfortunately, still alive.

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