Gazpachuelo Malagueño is a warm fish soup from Málaga — a clear fish broth thickened with a mayonnaise emulsion and flavored with garlic and citrus. Unlike cold gazpacho, this one is served hot, with boiled potatoes and white fish. The mayo gives it a silky, opaque body that ordinary broth cannot match.
Gazpachuelo comes from the working-class fishing districts of Málaga, where it was the dish of Holy Week processions and winter evenings. The name plays on gazpacho (cold soup) but turns it warm. The cleverness of the dish is using mayonnaise as a hot-soup thickener — the emulsion holds if added off the heat and whisked gradually.
A bowl of pale, silky soup — almost cream-like, but lighter. The fish broth is clean and briny; the mayo gives it body without heaviness. The garlic and citrus come through on the finish. Boiled potato and flakes of white fish fill the bottom. Eat it on a cold coastal evening.
The mayonnaise is made with garlic and a little of the fish broth, then whisked into the hot soup off the heat — never boiled, or it splits. The warm broth must be added to the mayo in a thin stream, like making the mayo itself in reverse. The potato starch helps stabilize the emulsion.
Variations
Some add prawns or clams; some use only egg yolk (no full mayo); citrus varies (orange, lemon); some finish with mint.
On the Palate
Where Gazpachuelo Malagueño sits in the Spanish flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 4
How it's made
8 steps · 45 min active + 15 min waiting
- 125 min
Make a clear fish broth with fish bones, water, onion, and a bay leaf; simmer 25 minutes; strain.
- 212 min
Boil potatoes in salted water until tender; drain; keep warm.
- 36 min
Poach white fish steaks in the broth 6 minutes; lift out; flake.
- 48 min
Make the mayo: pound garlic with salt in a mortar; whisk in 1 egg yolk; stream in olive oil to emulsify; thin with 2 ladles of warm broth.
Watch outStream the oil into the yolk drop by drop at first — rush it and the mayo never catches, breaking into a thin, oily puddle.
- 53 min
Off the heat, whisk the garlic mayo into the warm broth in a thin stream.
Watch outWhisk the mayo into the warm — not hot — broth in a thin stream; too hot or too fast and the emulsion curdles into strings.
- 63 min
Return to very low heat; do not boil; stir until just warm and silky.
Watch outKeep it just warm and never let it boil — one real bubble splits the silky soup into broth and floating curds.
- 72 min
Place potato and fish in bowls; ladle the soup over.
- 81 min
Finish with a squeeze of lemon and a drizzle of olive oil.
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