Savor Spain

Summer it’s the perfect time to enjoy a gazpacho, that famous cold vegetable soup that’s so popular all over the world.

It’s easy, healthy, cheap and delicious. Find my recipe at the end of the post.

Andalusian gastronomy have lots of different cold soups in their traditional cookbooks: Salmorejo, Ajoblanco, Mazamorra, Porra, Gazpacho de cilantro, etc; although not always they’ve been, smooth and velvety texture soups and neither the ingredients have been always the same, let’s see why.

Today we can’t imagine our life in Summer without couple of tomatoes in our chiller to make a quick salad, to use in a gazpacho or simply to use it for a ‘pa amb tomaquet’, but you must know that the tomato was brought from the ‘New World’ in the XVI century and it was not popular to eat or cook until mid of XVII and it wasn’t until the XIX century that people start adding it to the gazpacho. Then… what were the ingredients for the gazpacho?

It is believed that the origin of this kind of cold soups comes from a very simple elaboration that Roman soldiers use to prepare and eat in Hispania: a mix of garlic, water, stale bread, olive oil, vinegar and salt.

This base, plus adding some vegetables and herbs from the area, like cucumber, onion, mint, etc; will be the perfect combination to work during long hours and recover the energy for so many farmers along the years.

Texture-wise it was more like a porridge since it was done in a big bowl with a pestle, or simply chopped vegetables floating in water, vinegar and olive oil.

Then the tomato, finally, starts to being popular and consummed and, together with green pepper, somebody decided to add to the gazpacho, making it almost-perfect (still we needed someone to invent the Thermomix)

In 1824, you can find written recipe of ‘gaspacho-Spanish’ at ‘The Virginia House-Wife’ (Ms Mary Randolph)

And finally, what everyone is waiting for:

Ingredients for 6 pax

• 1 kg good and ripe tomato.
• 1 piece green pepper.
• 1/4 piece yellow onion.
• 1/2 piece cucumber.
• 2 piece garlic cloves.
• 50 ml olive oil.
• 50 gr stale bread (optional: if you use bread, gazpacho will have a thicker texture but also won’t be a gluten-free recipe anymore)
• 250 ml water.
• 5 gr salt.
• 30 ml Sherry vinegar, or apple cider vinegar.

Elaboration:

1. Wash and cut your vegetables into chunks, not too big.

2. Put all your ingredients together in a jar, or bowl. If you’re using a robot, use its container.

3. Blend until smooth texture. Taste and season.

4. Keep in the chiller at least 2 hours before and make sure it’s cold when you drink it.

Notes:

– You can add some fruit to the recipe like green apple, white peach, watermelon, red berries, etc. Try and make your differents gazpachos.

– Gazpacho its always better and tastier if its made with one day in advance, so all the flavor had marinate together.

– It’s a perfect pairing for some tinned seafood like berberechos or even fresh oysters. And a good ally if you’re hangover.