We love gazpacho, the classic chilled Spanish soup. It’s so refreshing, especially on a warm day. We often make it from scratch, using the recipe Bibi did – it’s easy to make, though it requires a little planning ahead. We’ll post a recipe for it soon.
But when we want a super-quick, virtually no-prep supper, we’re happy with a store bought version. Gazpacho is such a simple dish – just tomatoes, peppers, cucumber, garlic & onions, blended with a little oil & vinegar, and traditionally some bread – that it lends itself to a decent commercial version. The fresh, juice-like ones are very good. Look for it in your supermarket fresh juice section.
Jake sticks his nose in
We call this just ‘gazpacho’ as most people do, meaning a red tomato-based chilled soup. But there are lots of different gazpachos – a white almond-based version, a red one that swaps some tomato for watermelon, and, a favourite of ours, a green one with spinach, grapes, cucumber avocado & herbs. Experiment!
The packet gazpachos tend to be very smooth – smoother than the version we make at home. So we jazz it up, and add some texture, with toppings – which is also traditional when serving gazpacho.
Today we added some finely chopped pepper (we used yellow for colour contrast) and cucumber, plus a handful of store-bought croutons. But you could also add some chopped red or spring onion, roasted nuts (almonds are great), herbs or seeds. Or whatever you fancy – we also like it topped with finely chopped boiled egg, or a little crispy Spanish ham. This makes a healthy light lunch or supper in itself, but today we added another quick-fix favourite – oatcakes with creamy blue cheese. Gazpacho with cheese & biscuits, whichever cheese or crackers you choose, is a great combination!
To prepare the garnish – which is really the only cookery task in this supper! – chop the pepper and cucumber quite finely. Remove the stalk and white pith from the pepper before slicing into rounds and chopping. Slice the cucumber, then dice it and dry it off slightly with some kitchen towel.
Spread the oatcakes generously with the cheese – today we used a creamy blue one.
Your preparation is done!
Pour the gazpacho into bowls, and top with some croutons, then add the chopped cucumber & pepper.
Serve with the cheese & crackers, and enjoy!
Today we were having supper later after an evening out. We spent 5 minutes before we left chopping the cucumber and pepper; when we got back we had dinner on the table in minutes!
Leave a Reply