Sopas Mallorquinas
I recently travelled to Mallorca to find out what traditional vegan dishes are part of the local culture. The one that popped up on nearly every menu was Sopas Mallorquinas. It’s a rich vegetable soup that originated from the need to make use of whatever was currently growing in the garden, at a time when meat was not affordable or simply not available.
Ingredients
- 3 onions
- 4 garlic cloves
- 80 ml of extra virgin olive oil
- 1 savoy cabbage
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 50 g parsley
- 2 green peppers
- 1/2 cauliflower
- 30 g sweet paprika
- 400 g brown sourdough bread (ideally stale)
Instructions
- Peel and slice the onions, then peel and finely chop the garlic. Heat the olive oil in a casserole and gently fry the onion and garlic with 1 tbsp (30g) salt until golden. In the meantime, strip back the leaves of the cabbage and tear each leaf into bite-sized chunks.
- Add the tomato paste to the onions, then fold in the cabbage and cook until the leaves have softened and reduced. Roughly chop the parsley including the stems, remove the core of the pepper and chop the flesh into chunks, break the cauliflower into smaller pieces and roughly chop the leaves. Then add the parsley, pepper, cauliflower and sweet paprika to the casserole followed by 1l water. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 30 minutes until the cauliflower is tender.
- Divide the slices of bread over four bowls and pour over some of the broth to let the bread absorb it. Drizzle the slices with a bit of olive oil, then scoop over the vegetables from the casserole. It should have the consistency of a thick veg stew rather than a soup. Enjoy!