Recipe Gazpacho

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

I have something of a confession to make. I've never, ever had the traditional cold Spanish soup, gazpacho. That's the truth. Never.

So given the current hot summer temps (39°C today) and my general lack of enthusiasm to easy anything even vaguely warm in such temperatures, we have been working our way through cold soups that appeal to us.

Now neither of us have actually eaten this one before. Neither of us have tried it, so we could only base our decision on the list of ingredients and take it from there.

Ingredients
Soup base
1 tin of crushed tomatoes (or plum or anything full of flavour, avoid watery flavorless tomatoes otherwise the soup will be a disappointment).
1 large cucumber
⅔ red pepper, chopped coarsely
⅔ green pepper, chopped coarsely
2 bunches of spring onions, quartered
1 handful of parsley
2 tsp dried dill or a good 2 tbsp fresh dill, chopped

Rest of the soup
750ml fresh tomato juice (or failing that 3 very large fresh tomatoes, pureed or another can off chopped tomatoes, pureed)
½ large cucumber, finely diced
⅓ red pepper, finely diced
⅓ green pepper, finely diced
2 ripe (fresh) plum tomatoes, finely diced
1 large carrot, finely diced
1 large stick celery, finely diced
2-4 tbsp lemon juice (to taste)
Salt and pepper, to taste
2 tsp chilli flakes (optional)

Method

1. Place all the ingredients for the soup base in a liquidiser or Vitamix and blend until smooth. Transfer to a suitable serving vessel.
2. Add enough tomato juice to thin the base to your taste.
3. Add in the remaining ingredients, stir well and refrigerate for about an hour until serving.

I'll add photos and a review when we eat it later!

 

[rascal]

Not a big fan of soup. But I'd try it.

Russ

 

[TastyReuben]

I've never had gazpacho either. I'd try that, though.

 

[Morning Glory]

I've never had gazpacho either - mainly because cold soup doesn't really appeal to me. I think for the same reason that I don't like smoothies. My question here: why is this a soup rather than a smoothie?

 

[Morning Glory]

This may be of interest: How to make perfect gazpacho

I note your recipe doesn't include bread.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

My question here: why is this a soup rather than a smoothie?

My best guess is that you then add lumps of veg to it where as a smoothie is totally smooth.

But then what is the difference between a pureed soup (cream of tomato for instance) and a smoothie (say a tomatoes based one)? Temperature?
The fact one had been cooked and the other is raw?

This is raw but has lumps of veg. Many of my soup recipes say remove x many ladlefuls of soup, now puree the rest and add the ladlefuls back...

 

[Morning Glory]

My best guess is that you then add lumps of veg to it where as a smoothie is totally smooth.

Yes - of course. I somehow skipped that!

But then what is the difference between a pureed soup (cream of tomato for instance) and a smoothie (say a tomatoes based one)? Temperature?

Yes - in that case cooking it I think. Smoothies are always raw I believe.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

I note your recipe doesn't include bread.

Is it meant to?

The recipe (I altered it slightly, I'll add the reference tomorrow) said garlic croutons optional and i was no way putting the oven on today with it hitting 39°C just to make some croutons.

 

[Morning Glory]

Is it meant to?

I was making reference to the Guardian article... no it doesn't have to.

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

I was making reference to the Guardian article... no it doesn't have to.

I was working towards the cookery book challenge and using a recipe from one of my cookery books. I never even looked online tbh.