As a good patriot I’m looking for ways to eat more tomatoes, bell peppers, and cucumbers. And so I thought of a wonderful solution: gazpacho. This is a cold soup from Spain that is made from tomatoes, cucumbers, bell peppers, onions, stale bread, garlic, extra virgin olive oil, white wine vinegar, and salt. It has a wonderful flavor and is very easy to make: just blend all the ingredients until you’ve reached the desired consistency. Water is added to make it thinner if needed. It is perfect for a hot summer’s day.
Ingredients
For 1.5 litres (6 cups)
1 kg (2.2 lbs) ripe tomatoes
1/2 cucumber
1/2 bell pepper
1 clove garlic
1/2 medium onion
150 grams (5 oz) stale bread, crusts removed
60 ml (1/4 cup) extra virgin olive oil
30 ml (2 Tbsp) white wine vinegar
salt
Preparation
Peel the cucumber, garlic, and onion. Clean the bell pepper. Roughly chop the vegetables.
Put them in the blender.
Blend until smooth and transfer to a large bowl or other container.
You can skin and seed the tomatoes if you like, but you can also puree them whole and then sieve out the skin and seeds with a foodmill. That’s what I did.
Process in batches if needed.
If you process the tomatoes until they are very smooth, less seeds and skin will be sieved out.
Remove the crusts of the bread.
Process the bread together with a bit of the soup. Combine everything, add oil, vinegar, and salt, and stir well. Taste and adjust the seasoning.
Serve fresh, a bit below room temperature but not refrigerated.
Flashback
Caprese salad is a very simple recipe, but my post includes a simple trick for improving the flavor of the mozzarella.
Stefan's Gourmet Blog 
Gazpacho and caprese salad are two of my favorite things and have been on my mind lately! Great mind think alike. You version of the soup looks delicious and reminds me of my time in Spain. A friend, Elena, made a gazpacho very similar to yours.
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Thanks, Shanna. I googled a lot of recipes and noticed that they seemed to agree on the ingredients for traditional gazpacho.
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oooo.. there’s the asian cucumber salad.. with tomatoes, red onion, cucumber.. fresh ging & Spices.. I also make a Tabbooleh only I use Red and White quinoa and I add red bell pepper. Just some ideas cause I love that combo myself. Thanks for the idea back, I’ve never made it.
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Those are great ideas to eat more tomatoes, cucumbers, and bell peppers, and fight the boycott. It would have to be made using European Union produce though 😉
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You have made me smile on a Sunday forenoon 🙂 ! Why is gazpacho ‘patriotic’ to a Dutchman ?!!! I love making it on summer Sundays for friends . . . many variations of course, but my croutons go on top of the bowl and I also leave about 1/4 or more of the ‘vegetables’ to be finely cubed and placed in small bowls next to the tureen to be selected as a garnish!! Well, my way 😀 !!
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It’s not the recipe that is patriotic but the ingredients that have been hit by the boycott — by eating more of them ourselves we support our own farmers 🙂
The garnish with croutons and cubed vegetables certainly is the Spanish way too. I left it out as I made 6 litres of it and served it on the boat to a crowd of 25 🙂
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More than understand both!! I actually AM trying to do the same here Down Under!! And DO hope you had a fabulous time aboard: remember you cooking for a crowd afloat last year!!!!!!!!
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Oh my goodness, I saw all those tomatoes and bread in the ingredients shot and thought wow! that is a lot of gazpacho! But then I realized you had probably bought a lot of that for later use when I read your recipe. A beautiful summer soup!
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I was feeding a crowd and made a quadruple portion (which I served out of a bucket). The bread is way too much though, I ended up using only of the three loafs to get the consistency I wanted.
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Very patriotic of you Stefan indeed. Lovely looking soup.
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Is Ireland being hit by the boycott as well? There may be a patriotic post in this for you, too 😉
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Yes. We need to eat a lot of cheese.
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Gazpacho is such a great soup, Stefan, and your recipe is a good one. Our Summer’s been cool until now, causing our tomatoes to all suddenly ripen. Gazpacho and Pappa al Pomodoro are great ways to handle the surplus.I need to give your recipe a try.
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Our tomatoes are from greenhouses and grown on artificial soil, so think of me when you enjoy your surplus! 😉
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