Andalusian Gazpacho

Back in August 2009, Mr. Shuffler and I spent three weeks in Spain. Lesson #1: Don’t visit southern Spain in August. Its nickname is the “frying pan” of Spain. We had many culinary adventures on this trip (did you know that “boquerones” in Spanish means “sardines”?) but one of our favourite takeaways was gazpacho, a cold tomato-based soup originally developed in Andalusia. I think we must have eaten this stuff every other day and it was delicious. Cool, refreshing, relatively healthy – the perfect way to deal with 45 degree temperatures. We still like to whip up a batch in July/August when the idea of turning on the stove to make dinner seems insane. We found the original recipe here; in our version, we left out the bread crumbs.

Ingredients

• 8 cups cold water
• 8 large tomatoes – peeled, seeded and chopped
• 1/4 cup minced onion
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 cucumber, peeled and finely chopped
• 1 green bell pepper, minced
• 1 (1 pound) loaf stale French bread, cut into 1 inch cubes
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/4 cup wine vinegar
• 1/8 tablespoon salt

Directions

1. Combine water, tomatoes, bread, and oil in a large stock pot. Set aside.
2. In a food processor or blender, blend onion, garlic, cucumber, and green pepper to a paste. Stir into the stock pot.
3. Using a hand mixer, blend until ingredients have a watery, pinkish consistency. Alternatively, process in a blender or food processor until smooth. Add vinegar, and season with salt. Serves 6-8