Gazpacho from Andalusia is the embodiment of cold cuisine for me. Flavorful, refreshing, and light – this recipe for gazpacho is perfect for hot summer days.
I’m writing and cooking this in March for my birthday. Gazpacho is uncooked and eaten ice cold – why make a dish like this in March? Because I’m currently living in India and it’s a refreshing 32 degrees here right now. Actually quite cool for Mumbai at the moment. But I’m still in the mood for gazpacho 😎.
There are all sorts of variations of gazpacho. With or without onions, with watermelon or even with cherries. I will definitely try the one with watermelon again, especially because I can easily get melons here in Mumbai. Cherries are very expensive here, I’ll probably leave that be for now. Although this sounds exciting. Today I’m making the traditional gazpacho, without onions. You can add onions, but better sparingly. I prefer it without.
Ricardo Reina Martel, who I think has by far the best page on Andalusian cuisine, lists many more local variations of gazpacho. I don’t want to copy his page in its entirety right now, but I think the three most exciting variants are:
- Gazpacho verde de Huelva: garlic, cilantro (or parsley, green pepper, basil), bread, oil, vinegar, salt, lettuce or endive
- Ajoblanco: actually a soup of its own. I will try this one in the coming days as well. This one is white because it is made with milk and almonds.
- Salmorejo: also a well-known stand-alone dish that I am yet to try. This is very thick because it contains more bread and less water. It is served with serrano ham and boiled egg.
Tips for preparation
This recipe for gazpacho almost made my stand mixer overflow. Definitely add the water only in the soup bowl, not in your mixer. I would definitely add the oil in the blender, as this emulsifies it only, thus making an uniform mixture with the rest of the gazpacho. If you have concerns about the capacity of your blender: just make half the amount in the blender and stir both halfs afterwards. I recommend to pass the gazpacho 2x through a sieve. Before the first time, you just put the tomatoes in the blender and strain them through the sieve to remove the seeds. The second time you strain the otherwise finished gazpacho. This ensures that small pieces of the bell pepper skin are removed and the soaked bread is pressed smaller. As a result, the gazpacho becomes more homogeneous or uniform.
Gazpacho – The Andalusian classic for hot summer days
Equipment
- Blender
Ingredients
- 1 kg tomatoes very ripe
- 2 cloves garlic without the germinating center
- 1 green bell pepper
- 1 cucumber small, peeled
- ¼ onion optional
- 150 g wheat bread stale, soaked in water
- 150 ml olive oil
- 2 Tbsp sherry vinegar
- some water
- salt
Instructions
- First, carve a large cross into the skin of the tomatoes, place them in a bowl and blanch them with boiling water.
- After about 3 minutes, pour off the boiling water and rinse the tomatoes with ice water.When they have cooled down, peel them and remove the stalk.
- Puree the tomatoes in a blender.
- Now strain the puree through a sieve to remove the tomato seeds.
- Add all the remaining ingredients to the tomatoes in the blender and puree until they have a nice orange color.Be sure to check the capacity of your blender. If in doubt, do everything in 2 steps with half the amount.
- Now pass the soup through a sieve to remove any coarse bits and to give the bread a nice fine texture.I really recommend straining the gazpacho 2x. It's much easier if you strain the tomatoes alone first, otherwise your strainer will get clogged with seeds and other bits much too quickly. Then you need longer in the end than if you do it in 2 steps. By the way, your sieve should not be too fine, otherwise it will clog too quickly.
- According to taste, you can add some cold water.
- The recipe I used as a base for mine recommends adding a small piece of red bell pepper to get a nicer color. However, this is not actually included in gazpacho and I didn't use it either (but it doesn't hurt either 🙂 ).
- Now put the gazpacho in the fridge to cool, so it will definitely be nice and cold to serve.
- Gazpacho is served with very finely chopped garnishes, which are basically the ingredients of the gazpacho itself: Tomatoes, peppers, onions and cucumbers. But hard-boiled egg whites, croutons and Serrano ham are also popular garnishes.
Please rate my recipe before you leave 🙂:
My source for the recipe for gazpacho: https://www.divinacocina.es/gazpacho/
Cooked with lots of love ♥ on From zero to curry.
2 thoughts on “Gazpacho – The Andalusian classic for hot summer days”
V.good
thanks a lot 🙂