I am pretty sure the first time I ever had Gazpacho was in the early 70’s. Rather a cool-food of the moment it seemed to show up everywhere at potlucks and restaurants. Mostly chunky with too many onions taking over, and watery, I was never a fan. Over the years I tried the many versions of this Spanish soup that crossed my culinary path. The only vaguely appealing gazpachos were the blended-until-smooth ones…until recently.
I wish I could say the recipe is original, but it is not. On the other hand, I cannot say where it came from as it was cut from a magazine years ago and I recently found it in a file where I used to put such things before iphones and scanners. So I made this classic Andalusian Gazpacho a couple of weeks ago using Nashville homegrown tomatoes. I want to thank the cook who came up with this recipe and I want to thank them for converting me. Full of summer goodness.
Ingredients stuffed into my food processor…….
…and in a few seconds becoming creamy goodness.
I ate it for days. I froze some for later. August is a hot month calling for cooling foods. There’s a bumper crop of local tomatoes and cucumbers right now in the farmer’s markets. This soup is a good way to use those too-ripe-to-slice tomatoes as well.
Andalusian Gazpacho-Nashville Style
Ingredients:
- 4-5 very ripe tomatoes, cored and chopped
- 1/2 English cucumber, peeled, seeded and chopped (can use a home-grown as well)
- 1/4 cup chopped red onion
- 1 garlic clove
- 1/2 cup toasted slivered or sliced almonds
- 1/3 cup water
- 2-3 tablespoon sherry or red wine vinegar
- 3 tablespoons good olive oil, plus more for drizzling
- Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
- Optional: shredded cucumber for garnish
Directions:
- Put all the ingredients into a food processor or blender and process until very smooth.
- Taste and adjust seasonings. Chill in a glass container with a lid until ready to serve.
- To serve drizzle with additional olive oil. Top servings with shredded cucumber if you wish.