Gazpacho recipes for these hot summer days!
I’m sharing five different gazpacho recipes to try! Gazpacho is a traditional Spanish cold soup with a base of cucumbers and tomatoes, plus other garden veggies-like peppers!
Good news!
Those same veggies are probably what you’ve got booming in your garden if you have one!
~For us–it’s cucumber time! ~
Cucumbers coming out of our ears–that’s what we have!
The other day I tried several cucumber recipes!
- Cucumber Salad
- Gazpacho
- And just cucumbers in a regular salad. It gets pretty fancy around our homestead!
Gazpacho is vegan
I learned that Gazpacho is already a plant based, or vegan soup, so I didn’t need to alter the recipes.
AdAs I was making it, I thought, “Oh, I’m basically blending up salsa into a soup.”
Cool as a Cucumber
On a hot day, a cool soup is better than a hot soup. No need to heat up the house, or camper, in our case.
I liked it Andrew liked it, and we had leftovers.
So it’s not authentic!
I pulled a non-traditional stunt and added a can of garbanzos to ours, because it made it creamier and gave it a bit of substance. Don’t sue me–I’m not Spanish.
Five Gazpacho Recipes
Here’s a collection of five variations of the classic Gazpacho. See what ingredients you have on hand, and make whichever one works best according to your taste.
Gazpacho Recipe– Containing Bread
Gazpacho recipeThis recipe utilizes country bread blended into the soup, which adds a creamy texture. While not appropriate if you’re avoiding gluten, the creamy factor will appeal to many people!
Authentic Gazpacho—The Best Spanish Gazpacho
Authentic Gazpacho RecipeFunny how the author of this recipe did not like gazpacho initially. But it grew on her once she found a good one. This is a recipe brought directly from Spain, where she learned to love gazpacho!
Ina Garten Insanely Good Gazpacho Recipe
So this recipe, interestingly, is not blended, but served chunky and fresh–just like a bowl of salsa! Sounds and looks amazing to me!
Watermelon Gazpacho recipeThis one could be a bit of a stretch. Watermelon in your gazpacho is sure to change the flavor! I have tasted a salsa made with watermelon, which was not my thing, but it is a thing for many folks. Give it a shot and see what you think!
White Gazpacho recipeThis gazpacho recipe veers way off the traditional path. With a base of white bread and combination of cucumbers/grapes, it will be a sweeter soup. I’m sure it is still very refreshing because of the cucumbers, but I admit that the cilantro would ruin it for me. I can honestly see substituting the cilantro (soapy stink bug herb) for mint. But that’s just me and my aversion to cilantro.
Five Gazpacho Recipes
There you have five completely different gazpacho recipes to try.
My Experience with Gazpacho
When I made mine for the first time this week, it turned out not so brightly colored. That’s because I used part red/part yellow tomatoes. With all the green stuff mixed in, mine ended up a strange shade of orange-ish green.
While it tasted good, it was not going to win any beauty contests!
Random Facts about Gazpacho
- You can eat Gazpacho in a bowl with a spoon or a cup or mug and drink it down! I liked the mug option
- Gazpacho originally contained no tomatoes or veggies, but was fare for the poorest people.
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There are many theories as to the origin of gazpacho, including one that says it was a soup of bread, olive oil, water, vinegar, and garlic that arrived in Spain with the Romans.[2] Once in Spain, it became a part of southern cuisine, particularly in Córdoba, Seville or Granada Castilian kingdoms, using stale bread, garlic, olive oil, salt, and vinegar, similar to ajoblanco.[3] During the 19th century, red gazpacho was created when tomatoes were added to the ingredients. This version spread internationally and remains commonly known.
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- The first time I heard of gazpacho was when I was in a play at a teen, called Dinner with the Neighbors. It was quite a hoot and I honestly thought that gazpacho was some kind of a joke!
Recommended equipment
Powerful Blender
The good news is that making gazpacho is a very simple process! You won’t need a lot of special tools.
However, if you want to make it really smooth, I recommend a powerful blender. I personally use the Vitamix 5200 blender and it powers through anything I’ve tried to blend.
Since you’ll be blending raw veggies, it’s good to have something that can handle them.
Knives
Other than that, a good knife and cutting board are about the only tools you’ll need for this job. For tomatoes, I use the Rada tomato knife because it’s serrated and really does tomatoes well.
My main go-to kitchen knife that I use for pretty much every other vegetable is the Rada Stubby Butcher knife. They sell these locally at the bulk store and I’m glad that I tried these knives a few years back. They have been my favorite ever since.
That’s it!
Go out and pick yourself some veggies and whip up some cool gazpacho!
Tell me what your thoughts are on these gazpacho recipes!
Cold soup not your thing? Try this delicious Hearty Red Lentil Soup for a hearty, wholesome meal!
