Best Gazpacho soup recipe

This is a wonderful summer recipe and is extremely refreshing. It is really important to use fresh vegetables. And by fresh, I mean fresh, grown in season locally. Don’t try and make this in November in New York. The rubbish that the grocery store is selling out of season has been flown half way round the world and will taste of nothing.

This is one of my issues with grocery store chains. It is just not possible to get good tasting vegetables that far out of season. They can get them to look good, I will give them that, but when you smell them or taste them, you know they’re garbage, just imported to tempt you into buying and throwing away. I think the grocery store chains make more money out of getting you to throw food away than the food you actually eat. So, only in-season, summer vegetables and you will have one of the tastiest soups ever. Another simple recipe that just takes a little time.

You will need:

Equipment:

A food processor or blender

A sharp knife

A cutting board

A bowl

Ingredients:

For the soup:

1 ½ lb fresh ripe tomatoes

1/2 cucumber, peeled and chopped

3 green onions, peeled and chopped

1/2 red pepper, deseeded and chopped

2 cloves garlic, crushed

4 tablespoons olive oil

1 ½ table spoons wine vinegar

! heaped teaspoon fresh basil, chopped

½ pint water

Salt and pepper

For the garnish:

½ red pepper, deseeded and chopped finely

½ cucumber, peeled and chopped finely

2 green onions, chopped finely

1 hard boiled egg, chopped finely

1 tablespoon fresh parsley, chopped finely

Salt and pepper

Place the tomatoes in a bowl and pour boiling water over them. After a couple of minutes, the skins will loosen. Skin the tomatoes, halve them and scoop out and discard the seeds. Roughly chop and place in the food processor.

Add the cucumber, green onions, garlic and pepper. Season with salt and pepper and add the herbs, oil and wine vinegar. Blend together until smooth. Add a little cold water to thin the soup and pour back into the bowl. Cover with aluminum foil and chill thoroughly.

For the garnish combine all the ingredients together, season with salt and pepper and serve on the side. Serve with hot, crusty French bread. I also like to serve this with home-made garlic croutons that have been cooled. Serve the soup with ice cubes floating in it.

Bon Apetit!