Gazpacho – one of my favourite summer dishes, is a very light and refreshing soup, perfect for a summer day at the beach. It originates from Spain and traditional recipes use vegetables such as tomatoes and cucumber, vinegar, salt and soaked bread. I decided to add a little bit of flair to mine by adding a poblano pepper (a very mild chili pepper), cilantro and garlic croutons, instead of soaked bread. It’s a fun dish to play with by adding different toppings – I chose grilled corn (because I can’t get enough of it in the summer), bell pepper and croutons. You could also add avocado, chopped cucumber or anything else you think might be fun. This recipe makes quite a bit of soup because I was bringing it to an outside summer party, but it can easily be divided or even multiplied to suit your needs. Enjoy tomato season while it lasts!
Yield: Makes about 10 cups
Ingredients:
- 10 medium tomatoes
- 1 English cucumber
- ½ red onion
- ½ white onion
- 1 poblano pepper (green bell pepper, if preferred)
- ½ red bell pepper
- ¼ of a bunch of cilantro
- 2 celery stalks
- 2 garlic cloves
- ¼ cup croutons + more for garnish, as desired
- 3 tbsp red wine vinegar
- 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 2-3 tsp salt
- 1 tsp pepper
- ½ tsp cumin
- ¼ tsp cayenne (optional)
- 1 grilled corn for garnish
Preparation:
Roughly chop the first 9 ingredients. Put them in a bowl, add the croutons and sprinkle 1-2 teaspoons of salt on the chopped vegetables and let sit for 30-60 minutes. This allows the croutons to soften and the salt to pull out some of the water from the vegetables to create a thinner soup, or natural ‘broth’, so you don’t have to add any tomato juice or extra liquid. Add the remaining ingredients, except the corn, and blend everything together until most of the chunks are gone, to your desired texture preference. Serve cold and top with grilled corn, croutons and chopped bell pepper, if desired.
