Gazpacho
 

Cold tomato soup! What could sound stranger to a nation brought up on scalding hot cream of tomato? But……. the incredibly clean burst of flavours, tang and fantastically refreshing qualities of gazpacho may surprise you if you haven’t already tried it.

If you want to make something authentic and healthy at home, then look no further. Absolutely chock full of vitamins and antioxidants, nothing has been lost as you haven’t cooked the goodness away. It somehow seems more palatable than a Bloody Mary and theoretically just as good for a hangover. Serve it as a starter, soup course or simply a tasty drink

Traditionally gazpacho was quite a labour intensive dish to make as you needed to work the ingredients together gradually, by hand, with a pestle and mortar, but that was before the days of the blender!

  
     
 
  • 4 large ripe tomatoes, peeled (approx 1kg)
  • 2 small green peppers (capsicum)
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 1/2 onion
  • 1/2 cucumber
  • 2 Slices bread, no crusts
  • 4 tbsp olive oil
  • 1/4 tsp ground cumin
  • 5 tbsp lemon juice (vinegar can substitute, but it’s not quite the same)
  • ¼ - ½ litre water
  
 

Serves approximately 6

1. Soak bread in a little water.
2. Peel the tomatoes – blanching really helps to loosen the skin, boil a pan of water, make a small nick in the tomato skin and drop it in for about 30 seconds to 1 minute, but no longer. De-seed the peppers. Cut all of the vegetables roughly into chunks
3. Combine the vegetables in the blender making the mixture as smooth as possible, strain into a large bowl.
4. Squeeze the excess water out of the bread with your hands and purée in the blender, then slowly add the oil until it’s thoroughly mixed with the bread.
5. Add the salt, cumin and lemon juice.
6. Add a healthy quantity of the original tomato and vegetable mixture back into the blender and give it a good whizz to mix well.
7. Add the water
8. Combine contents of blender with existing bowl of tomato and vegetables.
9. Chill the gazpacho until serving time.

Garnish with croutons (anchovy or garlic croutons work well) and/or crumble in hard boiled eggs

Gazpacho is traditionally served with more complete versions of the vegetables you have included in the mix, i.e. tomatoes onions, cucumber & peppers as accompaniment.

This is the basic recipe for Gazpacho, but you can add many different ingredients for exciting variations, the only limit is your imagination – fresh coriander is delicious !

  
 
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