Gazpacho: a cold tomato soup with no cooking, thickened with bread instead of cream
The Andalusian soup in which nothing is cooked: ripe tomatoes, cucumber, pepper and garlic blended with soaked bread and olive oil, pushed through a sieve and chilled for three hours. The bread is not just filler: it helps bind the oil into the juice and gives the body you would otherwise look for in cream. Serve it ice-cold, at noon in July.
Your own work in that: 30 min.
- Bread and vegetables 20 min
- Blending and sieving 10 min
- Chilling 180 min
Step by step
0 / 6 doneSoak the bread
Tear 60 g of crumb only from stale bread, cover with cold water and leave 10 minutes. Squeeze it in your hand, but not bone dry: it should stay damp as a sponge.
Ingredients: 1000 g tomatoes · 1 pcs cucumber · 1 pcs green pepper · 1 clove garlic · 60 g stale white bread · 80 ml olive oil · 2 tbsp sherry or wine vinegar · 100 ml water · 1½ tsp salt
TipBread in gazpacho stabilises the emulsion rather than just padding it out. The starch and proteins from the crumb surround the droplets of oil and make it harder for them to rise, so the soup is thick and uniform without a drop of cream. Without bread, gazpacho is thinner and separates sooner.
Crumb only, ten minutes in waterCut the vegetables
Quarter the tomatoes (no need to peel, the sieve catches the skins). Peel the cucumber and cut into chunks. Deseed the pepper and cut into strips. Remove the green germ from the garlic.
Quarters, strips, garlic without its germBlend with the oil
Blend the vegetables, bread, garlic, vinegar and salt 2 minutes at full speed. With the blender running, pour in the oil in a thin stream. The soup turns from red to pale coral and looks frothy — that is right, it means the emulsion has taken.
TipOil added all at once floats on top; poured in a stream it breaks into microscopic droplets that the bread holds in suspension. That is where the creamy texture and the lighter colour come from.
Two minutes, oil in a thin streamPush through a sieve
Push the soup through a fine sieve, pressing with a ladle; skins and seeds stay behind. Loosen with cold water to the consistency of thick cream. This step takes five minutes and is the difference between a home soup and a restaurant one.
Skins and seeds stay in the meshChill at least three hours
Refrigerate 3 hours, ideally overnight. Before serving, taste and season again: salt, vinegar, and a pinch of sugar if the tomatoes were sharp.
Ingredients: 1000 g tomatoes · 1 pcs cucumber · 1 pcs green pepper · 1 clove garlic · 60 g stale white bread · 80 ml olive oil · 2 tbsp sherry or wine vinegar · 100 ml water · 1½ tsp salt
TipCold dulls the perception of taste and aroma. A gazpacho seasoned perfectly at room temperature tastes flat once chilled, which is why it is seasoned twice, the second time always cold.
Serve ice-cold
Dice the bread for croutons and fry in olive oil 3 minutes. Pour the soup into chilled bowls and top with the finely diced cucumber and pepper, the croutons and a thread of oil. Keeps 3 days in the fridge; stir before serving, as it separates slightly.
Ingredients: ½ pcs cucumber · ½ pcs pepper · 2 pcs bread for croutons · 2 tbsp olive oil
Diced vegetables, croutons, a thread of oil
Before you start
Salmorejo
The Córdoba version: tomatoes only (1 kg), much more bread (about 200 g), no cucumber or pepper. It comes out as thick as a sauce and is served with hard-boiled egg and ham. The same bread mechanism, pushed further.
Gluten-free
Instead of bread, 60 g soaked blanched almonds or a cooked potato. The emulsion sets in much the same way; with almonds the flavour is milder and nuttier.
Pointless in winter
Gazpacho is only as good as the tomatoes it is made from. Greenhouse tomatoes in January give pink water; this is a soup of July, August and September, and only then is it worth making.
