Souppes - Customary soups for a new mother
Name - Origin
Σούπες
Functional and symbolic role
A new mother would eat chicken soup with rusks dipped in the soup. Her friends, relatives and family would bring her soup during the difficult days following childbirth. The most common soup was rice that would be boiled in chicken broth or in water. Another option was avkolemoni (egg, lemon and rice) soup. Also A very common soup was the one with rice or vermicelli with fried onions and sometimes cinnamon added. Meatless soup was called orphaní (orphan). Other types of soup for a new mother were trahanas soup, pourkourósouppa (bulgur wheat soup) souppópsouma or psoumósouppa (with bread pieces), and tsiorvas (Protopapa, 2009 pp. 227, 283-284, 305, 313).
Additional information and bibliography
Protopapa K. (2009), ’Εθιμα της γέννησης στην παραδοσιακή κοινωνία της Κύπρου, Publications of the Centre for Scientific Research, XLIX, Nicosia.
Demetra Zannetou, Stalo Lazarou
Traditional Recipes
Easter soup
The soup is placed in a traditional wood-fired oven early on Holy Saturday evening and it is ready by Easter morning. A recipe from Orounda village.
Traditional Recipes
Lentil soup
A very simple recipe for legume soup, enhanced with rice and onion. This soup is usually served with bread and black olives.
Traditional Recipes
Lentil soup with trin
Before adding to the soup, half of the trin is lightly sautéed in olive oil until golden brown. Trin is a type of Cypriot homemade pasta.
Traditional Recipes
Lentil soup with vinegar
Lentils are boiled in water with rice or various greens and vegetables. Towards the end of cooking, olive oil and vinegar are added to the soup.
Traditional Recipes
Louvana (Cyprus vetch) soup
" ... add the chopped celery, along with the rice and salt. Immediately after that, finely chop the onion and fry it in plenty of olive oil. When it is ready, add it to the soup." (Phroso Kasinou,…
Traditional Recipes
Magiritsa soup
Magiritsa is a traditional soup prepared at Easter in many parts of Greece. Since the 1960s it has become common in Cyprus as well.
Foods
Mahosoupa - mung beans soup
A soup made of mung beans and mavrolado (type of olive oil). It had heating properties and was consumed mainly in winter.
Foods
Souppopsouma
A type of soup. The name of the soup comes from the ingredients used i.e. psoumi (bread) and soup.
Traditional Recipes
Water based soup with bitter orange juice
Recipe from Rizokarpaso. The soup contains fried onion, plenty of water and bitter orange juice. It is topped with pieces of fried bread along with oil used in frying.