Easy Peasy Gazpacho recipe

During its long, hot summers, Andalucía cools itself down with chilled  gazpacho a hearty and pungent soup that has gained fame throughout the world for its amazing thirst-quenching quality.

Often described as a liquid salad, gazpacho descends from ancient Roman concoction based on a combination of stale bread, garlic, olive oil, salt, and vinegar. As Romans labored to build roads and aqueducts across Spain in the scorching heat, this creamy soup replenished them with the necessary salt and vitamins lost through physical exertion.

Later, shepherds and farmers added vegetables to make it more hearty and satisfying. Because tomatoes and bell peppers were not indigenous to Spain, these ingredients were not added to the soup until after Spain's discovery of the New World. Since that time, gazpacho has remained relatively unchanged - an unpretentious soup designed to quench the thirst evoked by the unrelenting Spanish sun.

The Brits have long been suspicious of chilled soups – they seem unnatural somehow, in a climate more suited to tartan vacuum flasks and steaming broths...

But just as they've taken tapas to their hearts and embraced the pungent joys of goat's cheese and garlic, they've  come to see the virtues of a cool, liquid lunch.

Elizabeth David quotes the 19th century French writer Theodore Gautier on gazpacho: "At home, a dog of any breeding would refuse to sully its nose with such a compromising mixture." But the "hell-broth" works its magic even on this superior Parisian: "strange as it may seem the first time one tastes it," he continues, "one ends by getting used to it and even liking it."

... Most gazpacho recipes include bread. I decided to make a fairly standard, basic gazpacho excluding the bread option. It just sounds healthier...

 

The ingredients for my gazpacho are:

Serves 4

300g of ripe vine tomatoes 

2 cucumbers

2 ripe red peppers

A chilli pepper

2 garlic cloves

1 medium size onion

a pinch of ground cumin

a pinch of sea salt

1 tbsp vinegar

1 tbsp olive oil

.....all chopped, and then blend until smooth. It's that easy...

Chop all veggies and place into a deep bowl.

Mix the diced tomatoes, peppers, onion and cucumbers with the crushed garlic and olive oil in the bowl and blend until smooth.
Add the cumin, salt, vinegar and olive oil.

Refrigerate for an hour before serving.

London Spa Girl x