The Creamy Colombian Soup J. Kenji López-Alt Eats For Breakfast

Most Americans associate breakfast with pancakes, hash browns, and scrambled eggs. But as anyone who follows J. Kenji López-Alt knows, the celebrity chef tends to venture outside of the ordinary. Once in a while, you'll see him making breakfast burritos and eggs Benedict on his YouTube channel. But more often, he explores lesser-known breakfasts that are common in other cuisines. In the past, for example, López-Alt has introduced his fans to menemen, a Turkish breakfast staple made with eggs, peppers, and tomato, and he even did a video on chilaquiles, a Mexican egg dish made with tortillas and salsa.

Out of all the breakfasts he's tried, López-Alt still says his favorite is tamago gohan, a "Japanese carbonara" his mother used to make for him as a kid. Changua, a Colombian breakfast soup, is a close second. Unlike tamago gohan, however, López-Alt never made changua until he met his Colombian wife.

If you're making breakfast at home and all you have is eggs, milk, and bread, the first recipe that comes to mind might be French toast. But you can also make changua with the same combination of ingredients. Changua starts with a simple broth made with milk and water, to which salt pepper and scallions are added. When the broth boils, eggs are cracked on top. Once the eggs are poached, the soup is topped with slices of bread, cheese, and cilantro. 

People usually use up whatever stale bread they have on hand because it ends up getting soggy anyway, but some recipes call for using almojábana, a type of bread made with corn and cheese.

Though changua is technically a breakfast food, Colombians eat it any time of day. The soup was originally created by the Colombians who inhabited the colder regions of the Andes mountains as a way to stay warm.

It's no secret that J. Kenji López-Alt cooks a lot of Colombian food and visits the country often because of his wife, Adri. When it comes to changua, however, it wasn't Adri who taught him how to make it. Despite the fact that she's "from the heart of changua country," as López-Alt told The New York Times, his wife can't stand the taste and texture of the soup. When López-Alt learned to make changua, it was from Adri's aunt, he shared in a YouTube video.

Though many recipes use butter, potatoes, and stock in the broth, López-Alt sticks to what he was taught and only uses milk and water. Contrary to tradition, however, he leaves the eggs yolks runny instead of cooking them all the way through. As for the bread, López-Alt makes his changua with almojábana. 

When it comes to serving, instead of putting the almojábana on the top or on the side, López-Alt puts it at the bottom of the bowl, then pours the soup over it.