Bavarian Bread Soup

For the first time in 10+ years I burnt 4 sourdough loaves meat for the local farm shop, forgetting to set a timer. Most has now been sliced and frozen, but the hard 'knobby' ends were diced into large croutons and left out to dry.

I had thought about making a Ribollita (Tuscan Bread, Bean & Kale Soup), but a quick google turned up a a new bread based soup to try - Brotsuppe, a Bavarian Bread Soup.

Unsurprisingly for a Germanic recipe, the original recipe is not vegetarian or vegan, using butter, beef stock, cream, and egg.  But it can easily be made vegetarian buy using vegetable stock, or vegan by using olive oil as I did, vegetable stock, vegan cream, and omitting the egg (or liquidising 100g tofu)

Serves a hearty 4-6 (makes 2 litres)

100g cubed brown bread or sourdough

2 tbsp olive oil

1 large onion, peeled & thinly sliced

1 large garlic clove, peeled & crushed

1 heaped tbsp plain flour

1.5 recently boiled water

3 crumbled stock cubes, beef, chicken, or vegetable

100ml dairy or vegan cream

1 egg or 100g tofu (optional)

Fry the bread in the olive oil in a soup pan over a medium heat until golden brown.

Add the onions and garlic and fry as best you can amongst the cubed bread.  After a few minutes stir in the plain flour, followed by the water and stock cubes.  Bring to the boil, scraping the bottom of the pan with a spatula or flat ended wooden spoon. Once boiling, cover, and turn down to a simmer for 20 minutes.

After 20 minutes simmering, liquidise the soup with a stick blender.  Pour in the cream and egg, and liquidise again.  Heat gently, stirring continuously for about a minute for the egg to cook and thicken the soup slightly.

If you don't have a liquidiser, simply stir in the cream and beaten egg (if using) at the end of the cooking time.

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