Gazpacho

Gazpacho is known as the salad soup, and is a perfect refreshing dish to be enjoyed on a hot summer's lunchtime. Many variations exist, but this is my take on it.

• Ready In: 15 mins
• Serves: 4-6

Ingredients

• 1  kg  very ripe tomatoes, roughly chopped
• 2  sweet red peppers
• 1  large red onion
• 1  fresh red  chili, deseeded and chopped
• 1  cucumber, peeled, deseeded and chopped
• 150  g  day-old white  country bread
• 120  ml extra virgin olive oil
• 250  ml  ice-cold water
• 3  large garlic cloves
• 1  small  handful of fresh mint
• 1  tablespoon Tabasco sauce
• 1  lemon
• 2  hard-boiled eggs, chopped
•  salt & freshly ground black pepper

Directions

1. Blitz the bread into breadcrumbs and soak in half the water.
2. Put aside half a red pepper and half the onion, then roughly chop the remainder and place in a large bowl with the chili, tomatoes, cucumber, garlic, mint and olive oil.
3. Mix through the breadcrumbs and remainder of the water.
4. Blitz with either a hand blender or in batches in a conventional blender until smooth (several minutes).
5. If you prefer, you can sieve at this point to make the end result very smooth; I personally prefer the little bit of texture.
6. Stir through the tabasco and juice of half the lemon and season well (I used about three level teaspoons of salt and the same of black pepper).
7. Taste and adjust lemon, tabasco and seasoning as required.
8. Chill for at least 4 hours to allow flavours to infuse - it should be served very cold.
9. Serve alongside a plate containing the remainder of the red pepper and red onion, very finely chopped, and the hard boiled egg for people to sprinkle on to their taste.
10. Garnish with a few small mint leaves and lemon.