Gazpacho | Recipe

Gazpacho is a chilled, vegetable soup and is an ubiquitous treat in Spain. And it's no surprise the Gazpacho was a big hit at our Tapas Vino Spring event in late April - it's just so dang tasty. Chef Brynden has tried many gazpacho recipes and approaches but claims that this recipe from Cuisines of the World: Spain by Cornelia Rosales de Molino (a cookbook he highly recommends) is essentially flawless, so we thought we'd share it with you! When those tomatoes and peppers come in this summer, try this simple recipe for a light lunch or an early dinner. You'll be very pleased...

INGREDIENTs

3 slices white bread, crust removed.
7 tbsp olive oil
4 garlic cloves
Pinch cumin powder (or freshly ground cumin seeds)
3 ripe, large, tomatoes
1 cucumber
1 red bell pepper
Salt
2 tbsp red wine vinegar

Instructions

• Tear the bread into pieces, place in a bowl and mash with the olive oil. Peel and crush the garlic and add to the bread. sprinkle with a little cumin and salt. Stir thoroughly, let stand 30 minutes.

• Meanwhile, plunge the tomatoes briefly into boiling water, skin, halve and deseed. Finely dice one quarter of one tomato, place in small bowl and reserve. Coarsely chop the rest of the tomatoes and place in high-powered blender.

• Peel the cucumber, cut into planks, discarding the seeds, finely dice about a quarter of it and add to the diced tomato. Roughly chop the rest and add to tomatoes in blender.

• Deseed the bell pepper, finely dice about one quarter of it, add to cucumber & tomato dice, roughly chop the rest and add to blender. Puree until smooth, pour into bread and olive oil mixture, mix thoroughly, begin pureeing small batches in blender so as not to over-load (should only take two or three batches, small batches ensure the mixture doesn’t heat up too much). Pour through a fine mesh sieve, chill in refrigerator 30 mins or up to several days, garnish with diced vegetables and olive oil (salt and/or smoked paprika are also great for garnish).