Anyone have a great recipe for gazpacho?

I’m at work so I don’t have it here but I use the one from The Vegetarian Epicure by Ann Thomas and like it a lot.

This is a really flavoursome recipe for gazpacho:-

INGREDIENTS

150g day-old white bread, preferably country-style
1 cucumber
1 red chilli
2 red peppers, preferably the pointed, “extra-sweet” type
1kg tomatoes, including a proportion of Jersey Jewel or other full-flavoured cherry tomatoes
1 large red onion
2 tbsp sherry or wine vinegar
About 20 small mint leaves
100ml extra virgin olive oil plus 2 tbsp extra
3 plum or vine tomatoes
1 lemon
Tabasco sauce

METHOD

Peel the garlic. Tear the bread into pieces. Place both in the bowl of a food processor and blitz to make fine breadcrumbs. Meanwhile, peel the cucumber. Halve it horizontally and use a teaspoon to scrape out the seeds. Chop half of it roughly. Trim and split the chilli. Scrape out the seeds. Set aside half a red pepper and chop the rest, discarding seeds and white filament. Peel and halve the onion. Coarsely chop one half and add to the breadcrumbs with the chopped cucumber, chilli and chopped red pepper. Remove the stalks from the 1kg tomatoes. Roughly chop regular tomatoes, leave cherry tomatoes whole. Add the tomatoes to the food processor bowl with the vinegar, 300ml ice-cold water, most of the mint, the 100ml olive oil, ½ tsp salt and a generous seasoning of black pepper. Blitz for several minutes until liquidised (you may need to do this in two batches). Meanwhile prepare the garnishes. Keeping separate piles, finely dice the remaining cucumber and red pepper and finely chop the remaining red onion. Quarter the plum or vine tomatoes, discard the seeds and finely chop. Taste the gazpacho and adjust the seasoning with salt, pepper, lemon juice and Tabasco. If you think the soup needs it – it makes it very creamy – whisk in the extra olive oil. Transfer to a serving bowl and chill until required, at least 4 hours.

@janbb Any chance I could persuade you to post it when you have the opportunity?

@partyparty Thank you, that sounds great. I especially like the addition of the mint and chilli.

Here’s one I use. These recipes are flexible, pliable and very forgiving. Add, subtract, fiddle, neglect… it doesn’t matter.

What does are the quality of the tomatoes. Best is freshly picked from your garden. We leave seeds and skin on for all the veggies except bell peppers.

Will try to do it tonight if I have time.

@gailcalled That recipe looks intriguing – no chillies or mint, I notice, but cumin. Nom!

@janbb Thank you!

I make it differently every time but use as a quuck and easy base hot v8 juice,

to that I add lemon and/or lime juice, worcestershire, garlic, [sometimes a little horseradish], olive oil, bread/cracker/pizza crumbs [very few], whichever of these fresh spices are growing well, basil, mint, dill, or similar dried, then blend this up

then I cut up my cukes, tomatoes, onions [pref red], shallots, peppers, and throw half of them into the blender with the rest and reblend

and reserve half to be the chunky bits and add a lot of ground pepper—

taste and modify if necessary.

When it’s really hot in the deep of summer, there is nothing better than gazpacho. I wandered last summer fruitlessly trying to find some at a restaurant (I believe I was in Seattle trying to find some). Thanks for this question, and for all those sending in recipes. I will keep them for when the need strikes this coming summer.

@skfinkel Well, if you were wandering fruitless, no wonder you couldn’t find any.

@skfinkel Meant to say “fruitlessly” – way to kill a pun.

@Rhodentette I did find the recipe but it is long and my hands are tired from work (carpal tunnel.) I will post it within the next few days though. Or if you want to pm me your e-mail address, I can scan it and attach it.

@Rhodentette: As I said, you can fiddle. However, I would choose either chillis or mint. They probably don’t mix too well.

@gailcalled I’ve always found that chillies and mint go well together. I make chilli-mint chutneys and recently used both in a pulao that was really very good.

@Rhodentette: Lovely. That is my new piece of information discovered before breakfast.

Possibly similar to combining chilli peppers and yogurt? Fire and ice?

@gailcalled I love the chilli-yoghurt combination! I think it’s a winner every time. I guess it’s like combining something spicy with something sweet. I once had raspberry chilli ice-cream which was something of a religious experience. :) It was sweet, fire and ice all at the same time. It’s a big part of the reason I try to keep a very open mind if someone suggests an odd flavour combination, like peanut butter on a hamburger.

@Rhodentette; A good suggestion on this frigid January evening.

Chilli and Raspberry ice cream? Why not?

Here you go (I will summarize):

7 to 8 medium ripe tomatoes
2 medium-sized cucumbers
1 green bell pepper
1 small onion
2–3 cloves garlic
1½ slices French bread
1½ c. cold water
6 Tbs. olive oil
4 to 5 Tbs. wine vinegar
3 tsp. salt
2 tsp. paprika
pinch of cumin
black pepper to taste

Cut up veggies into coarse dice. Cube the bread. Put garlic through a press.

Put prepared ingredients, two or three cups at a time into a blender or food processor, adding a little of the water each time. Blend until pureed.

Put in a large bowl. Add the oil and vinegar, remaining water and the seasonings and whisk until blended. Taste and correct the seasonings; if too thick, it may be thinned with a little water.

Chill for several hours before serving. Pass more cut up veggies – if desired – as a garnish.