Gazpacho
Gazpacho is the salad Andalusian farmworkers drank, and nothing in it is cooked. It rests on three conditions: ripe tomatoes (in winter, do not bother), a few hours in the cold for the flavours to marry, and olive oil poured into a running blender so it emulsifies and gives the soup its velvet body.
- Prep
- 20 min
- Rest
- 4 h
- Total
- 4 h 20 min
- Servings
- 4
- Level
- Easy
- Per serving
- 130 kcal
Ingredients
The soup
To serve
Makes: about 1.2 l, 4 bowls
Shopping list
The ingredients for the servings you chose — copy them or send them to a messenger. Tick what you already have at home: only the rest goes on the list.
Method
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Step 1: Soak the bread
Cover the stale bread with water for 10 minutes and squeeze it out. The bread is not for bulk but for texture: it holds the emulsion together.
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Step 2: Cut the vegetables
Chop the tomatoes, cucumber and pepper roughly. There is no need to skin the tomatoes if you will strain the soup.
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Step 3: Blend
Blend the vegetables with the bread, garlic, salt and vinegar for 2 minutes, until smooth and noticeably paler. Long blending aerates it and lightens the colour, as it should.
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Step 4: Stream in the oil
With the blender still running, pour the olive oil in a thin stream. The soup thickens as you watch — the same emulsion as in mayonnaise.
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Step 5: Strain
Pass it through a sieve to remove skins and seeds. Optional, but it is what makes gazpacho velvety rather than pulpy.
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Step 6: Chill 4 hours
Refrigerate at least four hours, ideally overnight. Cold mutes salt, so taste it again before serving.
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Step 7: Serve with diced vegetables
Ladle into chilled bowls and top with diced cucumber and pepper and a spoon of olive oil.
Tips & variations
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Tip
Do not make gazpacho with winter tomatoes — they are watery and flat. Tinned tomatoes in juice beat a pale greenhouse one.
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Tip
The vinegar is not optional: without acidity the soup tastes flat and coats the tongue. Sherry vinegar is authentic, but red wine vinegar comes close.
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Variation
Salmorejo is gazpacho's thicker cousin: only tomatoes, bread, garlic and oil, no cucumber or pepper, served with egg and jamón.
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Storage
Three days in a bottle in the fridge, shaken before serving. It improves on day two, once the garlic and vinegar stop standing out.
Nutrition
| 1 serving | Whole dish 4 servings | |
|---|---|---|
| Energy | 130 kcal | 520 kcal |
| Protein | 2 g | 8 g |
| Fat | 9 g | 36 g |
| Carbohydrates | 11 g | 44 g |
Approximate values calculated from standard ingredient data.
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