Gazpacho
The cold Spanish tomato soup that needs no stove at all, just ripe vegetables, good olive oil and a blender, for the hottest nights of summer.
- 80 min total
- 20 min hands-on
- Anyone can make this
- Serves 4
- About $1.73 a serving
- 220 calories
- Good the next day
- Vegetarian
Dolly says: Make the full amount. It’s just as good for lunch the next day.
Ingredients
For 4 servings.
- 2 lb Roma tomatoes, about 9, cored and chopped
- 1 cucumber, peeled and chopped
- 1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
- ¼ red onion, chopped
- 1 clove garlic
- 1 cup croutons (optional)
From your pantry
- 2 tbsp red wine vinegar
- 1¼ tsp salt
- 1 pinch ground cumin
- ½ cup water
- ⅓ cup olive oil, plus more for serving
Each serving has about 220 calories, 3 g protein, 14 g carbs and 18 g fat, and costs about $1.73 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No cucumbers? English cucumbers or mini cucumbers work.
- No red bell peppers? Yellow bell peppers work.
- No red onions? White onions or yellow onions work.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
and the tomatoes.
Core. Coring means cutting out the hard center of things like apples, peppers or cabbage. That center is tough and woody, so it’s the part you throw away.
How you’ll know: What’s left is all tender flesh, with no hard, pale center.
Chop. Chopping means cutting food into bite-size pieces that don’t need to be neat. Keep them roughly the same size so everything cooks evenly.
How you’ll know: Your pieces are about half an inch and roughly alike, even if none of them are pretty.
and the cucumber, and chop the bell pepper, and chop the onion.
Peel. Peeling means removing the skin with a vegetable peeler or a small knife. It takes off tough or bitter skins, though potato and carrot skins are fine to leave on unless the recipe insists.
How you’ll know: The color underneath is even all over, with no patches of skin left behind.
Chop. Chopping means cutting food into bite-size pieces that don’t need to be neat. Keep them roughly the same size so everything cooks evenly.
How you’ll know: Your pieces are about half an inch and roughly alike, even if none of them are pretty.
Seed. Seeding means scraping out the seeds and white ribs, usually from peppers, tomatoes or squash. In hot peppers the ribs hold most of the heat, so wash your hands after and don’t touch your eyes.
How you’ll know: The inside is smooth and clean, with no seeds or white ribs left.
Set aside a small handful of cucumber and pepper for the top.
Put the tomatoes, most of the cucumber and pepper, the onion, garlic, vinegar, salt, cumin and water in a blender and blend until very smooth, about 1 minute.
With the blender running, pour the oil in slowly through the hole in the lid until the soup turns a paler orange-red and looks creamy.
Dolly’s tip: Adding the oil slowly is what makes gazpacho silky instead of watery.Taste and adjust: more salt if it tastes flat, a little more vinegar if it tastes dull.
Pour it into a bowl or pitcher, cover and chill for at least 1 hour, until very cold.
Timer: 60 min
Dolly’s tip: Gazpacho only tastes right when it’s cold. It’s even better the next day.Stir, pour into bowls, and top with the saved cucumber and pepper, croutons and a of oil.
Drizzle. Drizzling means pouring a thin, slow stream over the top of something. A thin stream spreads a little flavor a long way.
How you’ll know: You see thin lines across the food, not a puddle collecting underneath.
Plan this in Dollop, and get the grocery list
Dollop puts this dinner on a night that suits your week, lists only what you still need to buy, and walks you through each step while you cook.
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