Easy Recipe: Tomato and bread soup

This is a great way to use up stale bread and is adapted from this Italian recipe I found when I googled "soup made from bread". I ate it warm and freshly made, though I think it'll be great chilled for the hot days we're due later this week. I'd also throw in a can of cannellini beans for a warming winter version. 

I've added this delicious recipe to my store cupboard/use of leftovers/heart friendly options - it's tooth friendly too which is sorely needed until I can get sorted at the dentist's 😋

Serves 4 generously

Ingredients

• 1 tbs olive oil
• 1 large red onion, finely chopped
• 2 x cans chopped tomatoes - I used one with herbs and the other with garlic and peppers in the Lidl range (add extra Italian herbs and garlic to taste if using plain chopped or plum tomatoes)
• Freshly ground black pepper to taste
• 1 tsp powdered garlic
• Half a teaspoon chipotle paste (or similar to taste to add a slight chilli kick)
• 1 litre vegetable stock (I used 4tsp low salt vegetable powder made up with hot water)
• A large handful of left over watercress, spinach and rocket leaves, roughly chopped (optional - a good way of using up any small quantities of salad leaves you may have OR use cavolo nero or similar for the winter version)
• A large handful of flat leaf parsley, roughly chopped
• 1 bayleaf
• 4 thickly cut slices of multigrain seeded bread (or whatever you have to hand)

Method

• Add the oil and onions to a large pan and sweat the onion using a low heat for around 10 minutes until it is softened and looks transparent
• Add the rest of the ingredients to the pan, except for the bread and reserving some of the parsley as garnish
• Bring to boil then simmer for 10 minutes
• In the meantime, toast the bread slices and cut or break into small bite sized pieces
• Take the pan off the heat and add the bread
• Leave for 10 minutes so the bread soaks up all the lovely juices
• Serve as shown in the photo above, garnished with the reserved parsley

Notes

• If using plum tomatoes, break them up well when adding them to the pan
• If using fresh tomatoes use 1kg and soak in hot water first for 10 minutes so the skins can be removed easily, then use in the same way as canned plum tomatoes
• The recipe says to use the pulp only from the fresh tomatoes, I decided to adjust the amount of stock used downwards slightly instead as the chopped tomatoes I use are quite thick