Gazpacho

breezermom's Note:

The most popular version of Gazpacho is chilled, fresh tomato soup. But in Spain, many times the base is served hot, with meatballs or chicken or even grapes! Regardless of the temperature, all Spanish gaspachos do contain vegetables and garlic. Posted for ZWT5.

• Total Time: 15 mins
• Prep Time: 15 mins
• Cook Time: 0 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 6

• 4 medium tomatoes
• 1 cup cucumber, chopped
• 1/4 cup green pepper, chopped
• 1/4 cup onion, very finely chopped
• 1/4 cup ripe olives, pitted and sliced
• 2 small garlic cloves, minced
• 1 cup cold water
• 2 tablespoons wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/8 teaspoon pepper
• crouton (optional)
• hard-boiled egg, grated (optional)

Directions:

1. Plunge tomatoes into boiling water for 30 seconds to loosen the skins. Remove and immerse in cold water. Remove the loosened skins. Coarsely chop the tomatoes. (You should have 1 1/2 cups of tomato).
2. In a mixing bowl combine chopped tomatoes, cucumber, green pepper, onion, olives, and garlic. Stir in cold water, vinegar, oil, sugar, salt, cumin, and pepper. Cover and chill thoroughly. Garnish each serving with croutons or grated egg.

Reviews

[Sydney Mike]

We do love soups around here, & gazpacho is one of our favorites! Thoroughly enjoyed yours, & I know it will taste even better come summer & we will have some wonderfully home-grown tomatoes & cucumbers! The only change I made was to use a bit of lemon pepper instead of the indicated pepper! Many thanks for sharing the recipe! {Made & reviewed in 1-2-3 Hits recipe tag]

[browneyes315]

I also liked this scaled down version - due to it being slightly more simple than my own recipe. And I replaced the olives with jalapeno's and the wine vinegar with a dry chardonnay wine. This recipe is a great new change to Gazpacho!

[MsSally]

What a great recipe. I love that this is a scaled down version of my usual. Wonderful combination of flavors. I made as stated but replaced the water with V8 juice and added a pink of cayenne pepper...