🇪🇸 Spain · Alora, Valle del Guadalhorce, Malaga (Andalusia)
Sopas perotasAndalusian bread and vegetable soup
A traditional Malaga bread soup of Alora in which bread is cooked with peppers, onions, asparagus, potatoes and broad beans, flavoured with mint, in olive oil and water.
Origin and history
Sopas perotas take their name from 'perotes', the nickname of Álora's people, in the Guadalhorce valley of Málaga. They began as a thrift dish of the town's farmhouses and of day labourers in the fields, softening hard bread with the garden's vegetables in olive oil. The Andalusian Historical Heritage Institute lists their making in its Atlas of Intangible Heritage, and every October Álora celebrates a Día de las Sopas Perotas, cooking them in great earthenware basins and handing them out free.
Make it at home
- Makes
- 4 to 6 servings
- Total time
- 50 min
- Hands-on
- 35 min
Ingredients
- 500 g1.1 lb pan cateto or hogaza (dense country bread), several days old, crust included
- 150 ml2/3 cup extra virgin olive oil, generous oil is essential
- 500 g1.1 lb (about 4 small) potatoes, peeled and sliced a little thicker than for a tortilla
- 1 bunch (about 250 g)1 bunch (about 9 oz) espárragos trigueros (thin wild or green asparagus), snapped into short pieces, woody ends discarded
- 2 green peppers (Italian frying type), chopped
- 1 onion, chopped
- 500 g1.1 lb ripe tomatoes, peeled and finely chopped or grated
- about 1.2 Labout 5 cups water, adjusted to the bread
- salt, to taste
- To serve, by season: Aloreña olives, sweet onion, cucumber, radishes, orange segments, grapes or figs
Method
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1. Tear the bread by hand into small pieces, crust and all, and put it in a wide earthenware bowl (lebrillo) or a tureen.
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2. Heat the olive oil in a wide pot and fry the potato slices with a pinch of salt for about 10 minutes, until soft and lightly golden; lift them out and set aside.
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3. In the same oil, fry the asparagus for 2 minutes, then the green pepper for 2 minutes, then add the onion and cook gently for about 8 minutes, until soft.
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4. Add the tomato and a little salt and let it fry for 8–10 minutes, until it loses its raw colour and turns glossy.
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5. Return the potatoes to the pot (keep a few slices to garnish), pour in the water and taste for salt.
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6. Heat it until small bubbles appear at the edge, just short of a boil, and keep it there for 5–10 minutes so the vegetables stay whole.
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7. Ladle the hot broth and vegetables over the bread a little at a time, pressing the bread down with the back of the ladle, until it has drunk it all: it should be moist and compact, not soupy and not dry.
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8. Let it rest for about 5 minutes, garnish with the reserved potatoes and serve from the bowl, with the seasonal accompaniments on the side.
Notes
- Sopas perotas are a vegetable refrito poured over bread, not a vegetable soup: the bread absorbs all the liquid, and Álora cooks say a knife pushed into it should stand upright.
- Each spoonful is traditionally followed by a bite of something fresh: an Aloreña olive, sweet onion, cucumber in summer, orange in winter, radishes, grapes or figs.
- Variations by household and season: a sprig of hierbabuena (mint), garlic, a few strands of saffron, broad beans in spring, or hard-boiled egg.
- Leftovers become 'el bolo' the next day: the sopa is piled back in the lebrillo with chopped spring onion, fried eggs, orange segments, a drizzle of raw olive oil and salt. Many say the sopas themselves are better the next day.
- Use dense country bread; sliced sandwich bread or soft rolls dissolve into paste.
- It is one of a family of bread sopas from inland Málaga; the sopa de los siete ramales of El Burgo is very close, but finished with fried eggs.
Adapted from Mercado de Calabajío (Málaga): Receta de sopas perotas, la sopa de pan de Álora, Turismo Interior de Málaga: Receta Sopas Perotas, and Directo al Paladar: Sopa perota, plato de jornaleros de Álora.
At the festivals
Served at 1 festival in Spain.
Earlier editions
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October 03, 2026
🇪🇸 Álora, Spain
Fiesta de las Sopas Perotas
By Prepared live in large lebrillos; also offered as a free tapa by the town's bars and restaurants