Andalusian style tomato soup

This is an andalusian (the region of Spain) dish intended for reusing stale bread with tomato, on which you can throw essentially anything! Only bread, tomato and parsley are truly necessary. I think it probably qualifies as cheap and healthy. Makes for around 4 servings. English is not my first language so sorry for my grammar!

Ingredients:

• About 200g of sliced bread, stale (you could toast it if not stale)
• 800gr of pureed tomato
• Half a brown onion, or 1 shallot
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 bell pepper (or whatever you have in the fridge)
• 1 litre chicken or vegetable stock
• 1 tbsp sugar (optional)
• Olive oil for sautéeing
• Fresh parsley

1. Sauté the onion (chopped finely) and pepper (in short strips) in a medium pot. A couple of minutes later, add the garlic, also finely chopped. When it’s done, the onion should look like it’s starting to caramelize.
2. Add tomato, sugar and salt. Simmer for a few minutes to thicken it a bit.
3. Throw in the bread, making sure all of it is well covered with the tomato. Leave it a couple of minutes.
4. Add stock until it covers everything.
5. Stir carefully, trying not to break the bread. Re-salt as needed.
6. Let it boil for a few minutes (not too much or the bread will turn into a pulp, we don’t want that). Add freshly chopped parsley on top when serving.

Being so simple, you can make infinite modifications to this. Some examples of traditional ones are adding smoked paprika, chorizo or adding prawns and using fish stock (adds to the price though!). Don’t be afraid of adding some meat to this as well.