Gazpacho Soup from Yellow Tomatoes
Serves: 4-6;
Gazpacho! The chilled, raw tomato and vegetable soup from Andalusia, Spain. Ever had it? Love it? Hate it? I can’t say I’ve always loved it, but if you get it right, gazpacho can be so good.
At its best, gazpacho is super refreshing and bursting with fresh-from-the-garden summer flavors. At its worst, gazpacho tastes like chunky cold salsa or thin tomato juice, neither of which do I particularly enjoy.
I wanted a texture somewhere in between the two, and far superior flavor. The trick, I discovered, is to blend half of ingredients into creamy oblivion. Then, add the other half and blitz until they break into tiny pieces. You’ll end up with a delicious, rich base, with tiny pieces of tomatoes, cucumber and pepper adding intrigue.
INGREDIENTS:
900g/2lb large yellow tomatoes, halved;
½ cucumber, peeled deseeded and diced;
1 yellow pepper, deseeded and diced;
100g 3 ½ oz red cherry tomatoes, deseeded and chopped
3 large spring onions finely chopped
1-2 green chillies, deseeded and finely chopped;
2tbsp wine vinegar;
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, plus extra for drizzling;
4 garlic cloves ;
½ tbsp sea salt flakes plus extra to taste ;
1/4 tsp pepper, plus extra to taste;
1/4 tsp sugar;
small handful basil leaves shredded, to garnish;
garlic croutons, to serve;
METOD:
- 1. Scoop out the seeds and juice from yellow tomatoes;
- 2. Pass the seeds and juice through a sieve set over a bowl. Chop the flesh and add to the bowl;
- 3. Set aside 4 tablespoons each of the cucumber and yellow pepper. Set aside all of the chopped cherry tomatoes;
- 5. Tip into a food processor. Process, craping down frequently, for 2 minutes, until very smooth. Pour back into the bowl;
- 6. Put the garlic into a mortar with the salt and crush with a pestle. Stir into the tomato mixture with the pepper and sugar. Chill for seceral hours until really cold;
- 7. Check the seasoning, adding more saltand pepper as necessary. Ladle intp chilled soup plates or bowls;
- 8. Top with the reserved yellow pepper, the cucumber and the cherry tomatoes;
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Best Gazpacho Tips
Don’t add bread
Traditional gazpacho blends in white bread for body, but I found that it diluted the flavor. I also didn’t enjoy straining the gazpacho through a fine sieve afterward. Blending up the produce with olive oil produces a rich, creamy emulsion that has plenty of body, no sieve required.
That means that this easy gazpacho recipe is gluten free and full of good-for-you fiber thanks to the unfiltered vegetables.
Blending options
If you’re in a hurry or want a totally smooth gazpacho, by all means, blend everything together at once (see the recipe notes for details on this shortcut).
I prefer my gazpacho with some texture. That’s why the recipe instructs you briefly blitz some of the ingredients into the soup instead of blending them all together at once.
If you love chunky gazpacho, you could just barely blend them into the soup.
Gazpacho needs time to chill
All good gazpachos need to spend a couple of hours in the refrigerator. This gives the flavors time to fully develop, and the soup time to chill completely.
Recommended garnishes
Chop and reserve some of the ingredients for garnishing the soup later (see steps 1 and 2). It’s an extra step, but it’s worth the trouble if you want the beautiful gazpacho you see here.
I was all googly-eyed over the food and plating in Madrid a couple of months ago, so I wanted to present Spanish gazpacho in its full glory.
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