Spanish cuisine
Gazpacho
Gazpacho andaluz
A cold tomato soup blended with bread and oil into an emulsion — that is what makes it thick rather than watery.
- Prep
- 20 min
- Cook
- 0 min
- Total
- 20 min
- Difficulty
- Easy
Ingredients
- Ripe tomatoes1 kg
- Cucumber — peeled1
- Green pepper½
- Garlic1 clove
- Stale white bread — crumb only, soaked80 g
- Extra virgin olive oil80 ml
- Sherry vinegar2 tbsp
- Saltto taste
Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.
Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.
Method
- 1
Soak the bread crumb in cold water for ten minutes and squeeze it dry.
10 min
- 2
Blend the tomatoes, cucumber, pepper, garlic and bread until completely smooth. It takes longer than you expect — a good two minutes at full speed.
3 min
- 3
With the blender still running, pour the oil in a thin stream. The soup pales and thickens: that is the emulsion.
2 min
- 4
Add the vinegar and salt, taste and season again. Pass it through a sieve for a silkier texture and chill for at least two hours.
5 min
About the dish
Gazpacho is an emulsion, not a purée of vegetables. The olive oil goes into a running blender in a thin stream, as it would into mayonnaise, and the soup turns from red to orange-pink and noticeably thicker. Skip that and you have cold tomato juice.
The bread is there for structure rather than bulk: its starch stabilises the emulsion. Use stale white crumb, soaked in water and squeezed out.
It is served ice cold, so season it harder than seems right: cold mutes flavour, and what tastes correct at room temperature comes out of the fridge flat.
Worth knowing
- — The tomatoes should be overripe — the ones no longer good for a salad are perfect here.
- — Sherry vinegar gives the Andalusian note. Wine vinegar works; cider vinegar pulls the flavour somewhere else.
- — Gazpacho thickens overnight. Whisk it before serving and loosen with iced water if it needs it.
Nutrition
Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.
- Calories
- 220 kcal
- Protein
- 4 g
- Fat
- 16 g
- Carbs
- 17 g
More from Spain
- Paella valenciana — Rice in a wide pan with chicken, rabbit and beans. It is never stirred once, and the crust on the bottom depends on that.
- Spanish tortilla — A thick omelette of potato and onion, where the potato is not fried but poached in oil until it is nearly a purée.
- Ham croquetas — A thick béchamel with ham, chilled until firm, breadcrumbed and deep-fried.