How To Make Gazpacho aka Really Delicious Chilled Tomato Soup
Gazpacho is a chilled tomato soup and generally is left uncooked. It’s important to use the best ingredients, especially when it comes to the tomatoes. Since we don’t always have access to the best tomatoes, we turn to roasting. By roasting about half of the tomatoes, the sugars and flavor of the tomatoes intensify. Roasting is up to you — if you have amazing tomatoes, don’t roast and just use them raw. We also roast tomatoes when making this slightly updated gazpacho recipe. Even more flavor comes from fresh basil, onion, lemon, cucumber and a little sherry vinegar. The soup really pops and is perfect served cold in warm weather. It’s also delicious served warm in cool weather. Recipe updated, originally posted August 2011. Since posting this in 2011, we have tweaked the recipe to be more clear. – Adam and Joanne 1 small jalapeño 3 medium, garlic cloves, unpeeled 1/2 cup chopped red onion 1 cucumber, halved, seeds removed and peeled 3/4 cup tomato juice 1/4 cup lightly packed basil leaves 5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil Half a lemon, juiced 2 teaspoons sherry vinegar 1 teaspoon sea salt, or to taste 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper, or to taste 2Arrange half the tomatoes, jalapeño, and unpeeled garlic cloves in a pan with sides, cut sides up, in a single layer. Drizzle with one tablespoon of olive oil and sprinkle with a pinch of salt. Roast for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven. 3Place the jalapeño into a bowl covered in plastic wrap or a re-sealable plastic bag for 10 minutes, peel, remove seeds, and roughly chop. 4Add the roughly chopped jalapeño, roasted tomatoes, and any juice from the baking sheet to a large mixing bowl. Squeeze the garlic from the garlic peel and add to the roasted tomatoes. 5Add the uncooked tomatoes, cucumber, red onion, tomato juice, basil leaves, olive oil, lemon juice, sherry vinegar, salt and pepper and stir to combine. 6Transfer the mixture to a blender or food processor and puree for 15 to 20 seconds on high speed, then add to a separate large bowl. Cover and chill for at least 2 hours.
