Gazpacho Andaluz, from Culinaria Spain
- 2-3 slices of white bread
- Generous 1pound ripe tomatoes, skinned, seeded, and diced
- 1 cucumber, peeled, seeded, an diced
- 1 green bell pepper, seeded and diced
- 3-4 cloves of garlic, peeled and diced
- ½ cup olive oil
- Salt
- 2-3 Tablespoons wine vinegar or sherry vinegar
To garnish:
- Cubes of white bread
- Small cubes of tomato
- Bell pepper, diced up small
- Diced onion
- Cubes of ham
- Hard-cooked egg, diced up small
Roughly break up the white bread, and pour some water over; then leave to soak for at least 30 minutes. Put the tomatoes, cucumber, bell pepper, and garlic in a blender, then add the bread, and finally the oil and puree the whole mixture. Add enough water as necessary to give the soup the required consistency. Then, if necessary, pass the soup through a fine sieve. Season with salt and vinegar. Place the gazpacho in the refrigerator for a minimum of 1 hour. Serve it very cold with separate bowls of white bread cubes, small pieces of bell pepper, diced onion, cubes of ham, and diced hard-cooked eggs, which each person mixes into their soup themselves.
From Sharon’s kitchen: This is the recipe that I use and love when making Gazpacho, but I have a few variations: I use a baguette for the white bread and I don’t soak it in advance. I also add about ¼ cup more olive oil (advice from my sister who lived in Spain). I don’t run my soup through a sieve as I don’t mind a little texture and my blender gets it rather smooth.
From Kimberly’s kitchen: This may depend on the blender you use and how smoothly it can break down all the ingredients, but I don’t remove the skin from the tomatoes to cut down on time.
Tomato Tips:
- Gazpacho tomatoes don’t need to be the most beautiful tomatoes at the market since they will just get blended. I save money by buying the discounted “seconds” at our farmers market.
- To prep the tomatoes for Gazpacho: cut a small x in the bottom of the tomato and drop into a pot of boiling water for about a minute. Scoop out with a slotted spoon and drop into a bowl of ice water. The skin should start to peel back from the x and then you can use a small knife to pull the rest off. Once you have a skinned tomato, cut in half and scoop out the seeds with a spoon. Then you can chop the skinned, seeded tomato and add to the blender.