Gazpacho is a traditional cold soup originating from the southern region of Spain, Andalusia. Initially, this dish was a humble peasant meal made from quite simple ingredients available in the region's hot climate. The main components of gazpacho are fresh vegetables: tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, peppers, and garlic, blended into a homogeneous mass (isn't it just a vegetable smoothie???) that gives the dish a refreshing taste and bright color. They are complemented with olive oil, salt, and hot pepper. In some variations, stale bread from the previous day is also added to the vegetable mixture.
Gazpacho is perfect for hot summer days, providing a wonderful opportunity to cool down, refuel, and enjoy the incredible flavors and aromas of fresh and ripe vegetables. Practically all the vegetable components (except for the hot pepper) were grown in our garden, so this recipe is especially dear to us. We will tell and show you what we came up with next ;)
Time required: up to 20 minutes for preparation, up to 2-3 hours – for chilling in the refrigerator
Difficulty: 1 out of 5
Cost of ingredients: low in the vegetable season, medium in the off-season
We will need:
For 4 servings (this time we took the vegetables “by eye”):
about one kilogram of ripe red tomatoes
1 large sweet bell pepper
1 medium head of garlic
1 medium onion (we used purple)
about 250 g of cucumbers (we have very tiny ones)
1 hot chili pepper
100 ml of olive oil
salt, pepper to taste
for decoration – croutons and parsley
тут всі інгредієнти, крім оливкової олії та грінок
Preparation
We wash the vegetables. We peel the onion, garlic, remove the skin from the cucumbers, and take out the seeds from the peppers. We cut all the tomatoes into large cubes (mirepoix). We also cut half of the onion, cucumbers, sweet and hot peppers.
проміжний результат нарізки
We place the chopped vegetables into the blender bowl, add salt, black pepper, olive oil (this is exactly what we forgot to do, don’t repeat our mistake) and turn on the blender.
до запуску блендеру 3...2...1
We chop until a homogeneous consistency. Right in the blender bowl, we send it to the refrigerator to cool and absorb flavors for a few hours.
в процесі подрібнення
During this time, we chop the remaining vegetables. We cut them into small cubes (brunoise). We detailed the vegetable cutting techniques here.
нарізані овочі
We mix them and will add them to the cooled vegetable mass. Technically, it is nothing more than a vegetable smoothie, but the addition of olive oil, finely chopped vegetables, and aromatic croutons elevates this cold soup to the level of a restaurant dish. While there are many inexpensive seasonal vegetables in the markets and supermarket shelves – take advantage of the moment and try making this incredibly tasty, nutritious, and healthy soup!
