This month’s link up is cold soups. I racked my brain for days trying to think of a fun, different, and original cold soup idea. And I thought of a bunch, mostly dessert ones. But then I thought to myself that summer is coming and a lot of my family members like the original cold soup, gaspacho, and I realized we don’t have a recipe for it on this blog. So why not just stay simple and make that?
It wasn’t as simple as I thought it would be, because I needed to find the perfect recipe for gazpacho. Turns out none of my friends had recipes they recommended. And my cookbooks weren’t so helpful either. The internet has tons of recipes, but I wasn’t in love with any of them.
Then I consulted my How to Cook Everything app and found a simple recipe from Mark Bittman. You really can’t go wrong with his recipes, so I settled on the recipe and went shopping. The verdict? Easy ingredients, easy preparation, and delicious cold soup!
Well, everyone else liked it. I happen to not like raw tomatoes. But if I did, I’m sure I would like this soup. Leave out the garlic clove (or replace it with a roasted one) if you don’t like the spicy flavor that it imparts or are feeding it to a 2-year old, like I wanted to (the kid just loves tomatoes).
Gazpacho, adapted from Mark Bittman:
Ingredients:
- 1 pound, roughly chopped
- 1/2 cucumber, peeled, seeded, and chopped
- 2 slices day old bread, crusts removed, torn into small pieces
- 2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil, plus more for garnish
- 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1 small shallot, diced
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Directions:
- Combine the tomatoes, cucumber, bread, oil, vinegar, and garlic with 1 cup water in a blender; process until smooth. If the gazpacho seems too thick, thin with additional water.
- Taste and adjust the seasoning.
- Serve immediately (or refrigerate and serve within a couple of hours), garnished with a drizzle of olive oil.
