
Vegetables:
- 1 big can (28 oz.) of unsalted whole peeled Roma tomatoes
- 1/2 green pepper
- 1/2 English cucumber
- 1/2 small yellow onion
- 1 garlic clove
- 1 slice of white bread (I know... it's not a vegetable!)
Spices:
- 1 table spoon of Jerez (or Xeres) vinegar (it's a Spanish sherry vinegar) -you could use balsamic vinegar alternatively but it's worth trying to find Jerez.
- the juice of 1/2 lemon (or 1 table spoon of ready-to-use lemon juice)
- 3 table spoons of very good olive oil (you know... extra virgin, first pressed cold, from Southern Europe -Spain, Italy, Greece, France)
- salt and pepper
- 1/2 tea spoon of ground Cayenne pepper if you want to spice it up.
The final touch:
- a few croutons
Now you just need to blend everything and serve it extra cold:
- Remove the seeds from the green pepper.
- Peel the English cucumber (you don't need to remove the seeds: everything is good in this type of cucumbers).
- Peel the onion and garlic clove, remove the germ in the center of the garlic clove.
- Coarsely cut everything in cubes or slices.
- Put the veggies in a blender bowl, pour the whole can of tomatoes (with the juice) and blend as finely as possible.
- Add the spices, oil, vinegar, lemon juice and blend again until smooth.
- Store the gazpacho in the freezer for about one hour (or in the fridge, at least 3 hours). Some people serve it with blended ice in it but it makes the gazpacho too watery to my taste... I'd rather wait until it's cold without adding ice.
- Pour the soup in individual bowls, sprinkle a few croutons on top and serve right away.
Voila !
Picture added on June 24, 2006.