Spanish Gazpacho Soup

Gazpacho is a cold soup from Andalucía, Spain featuring tomatoes, cucumber, red onion, garlic, bell peppers, and bread crumbs. The key to making a good gazpacho is getting the right balance of flavors; the emphasis should be on the tomatoes, cucumber, and bell pepper, with less on the onion and garlic. The ingredients are first puréed in the blender, with the bread crumbs added last to thicken the soup.

It’s a wonderful soup to cool down with during the hot summer months! Gazpacho is a rustic soup and should therefore be prepared simply. (I remember learning this recipe at the Le Cordon Bleu school in Madrid where the chefs tried to ‘French-ify’ the soup by first peeling the skin from the bell peppers, then making fancy ‘quenelle shapes’ with the garnish vegetables. Needless to say, I’ve left those steps out)!

Here are all the ingredients you’ll need for the soup. I’ve included one whole green bell pepper here, but you could also add a red bell pepper. I’ve included two Greek Peperoncini peppers to the recipe to add a bit of ‘heat’ to the recipe , but these are optional (seen at the bottom of the photo).

Tips:

Use the ripest tomatoes you can find; I recommend Roma tomatoes due their sweetness and low moisture content.

If you don’t have sherry vinegar on hand, you could use Red Wine Vinegar infused with a splash of sherry (that’s what I did)!

Add all the ingredients to the blender (except the bread crumbs), with the tomatoes and bell peppers on the bottom (this makes it easier to blend). Purée on high, then add the bread crumbs to thicken the mixture.

Taste and adjust seasoning and correct balance of flavors as required. Pour into individual serving bowls and add garnish on top.