Gazpacho is such a wonderful invention: salad in liquid form! I love it, but I have an aversion to the taste of raw peppers, in particular raw green peppers, which is one of the standard ingredients in gazpacho andaluz. So I decided to invent my own variation of gazpacho.
There are tons of recipes on the web, but the one I like best is one that was contributed by a member of the Gnocchi ai funghi Recipe Exchange Club: it calls for 5 very ripe tomatoes, 1 peeled cucumber, a garlic clove, 70 g of white bread (crusts removed), 15ml of sherry vinegar, 50ml of olive oil and 125ml of cold water (add more water to thin out the gazpacho to your taste) and salt to taste. You cut up the vegetables and add them, along with the other ingredients, to a blender and blend until perfectly smooth. Taste it to see if it needs more salt, or a bit more vinegar or (if the vinegar is too strong for your taste) some more oil. Chill for 2-3 hours and serve. In Andalucía, they garnish their gazpacho with finely chopped hard boiled egg and croutons. Here’s a photo of the classic version (sans garnish):
That’s the classic recipe. My “Mexican” variation is easy: instead of the green pepper, use a whole jalapeño, and, instead of egg and bread croutons, garnish with avocado slices and, if you like, some cilantro leaves and some chopped white onion. Voilà!
NOTE: The original recipe calls for peeling and seeding the tomatoes before they go into the blender. But if your blender is powerful enough, I find that this bit of work is not necessary. If you want a less picante version, you can seed the jalapeño before adding it to the blender.
Mmmm – this looks delicious!