Friday, September 16, 2016

Gazpacho

This week at Cook the Book Fridays (CtBF), the selected recipe is Gazpacho with Herbed Goat Cheese Toasts. I have however only made the Gazpacho and have skipped the Herbed Goat Cheese Toasts. I have never made gazpacho before and was looking forward to try this cold soup.

A healthy raw soup, where ripe tomatoes are blanched in boiling water, remove the skins, cut into half, squeezed the seeds out and strain the seed over a strainer into a bowl to collect the juices. Discard the seeds. A piece of bread soaked in water for a minute or two, squeeze out the extra water. The tomatoes, the collected juices  and the bread are then processed in a food processor until almost liquefied, with some bits of tomato visible. Pour into a large bowl, mix in finely chopped cucumbers, finely chopped red pepper, finely chopped garlic, red wine vinegar, olive oil, smoked paprika salt and ground black pepper to taste. Add the vodka. Mix well and chill thoroughly before serving.



There are mixed reviews when I served this to the family. I thought that this soup was just OK for me. My daughter does not like this soup. But both my husband and son thought that, in their words, "quite nice". 

Do stop by CtBF to view everyone's take on this soup. If you have the book or thought of getting one, please do, and join us! Full details here.



10 comments:

  1. A good soup for the hot humid weather.

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  2. Gazpacho is definitely something you like or you don´t. Yours looks so good!

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  3. An interesting soup, one that I have never made before. I'm not a fan of the raw veggies added, but
    Hubby likes them, so I used them all. I strained the soup for myself, and enjoyed it that way. The
    toasts were really tasty.

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  4. The consistency of your 'soup' is more 'juicy' than mine because I did not strained the blended tomatoes. I would have enjoyed your bowl over mine more!

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  5. I could easily make this again. It is so simple and so delicious. It is also surprisingly filling. I left a little chunk in mine, even though i put it in the cuisinart, which i loved for the crunch and burst of individual flavor throughout.

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  6. David did it the French way by straining everything. I did not follow his approach to the end. I can see what this raw tomato soup should look like according to the recipe. Your looks just lovely.

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  7. It looks great! I puréed mine, because I thought it would go over better, and then served it in shot glasses as an appetizer. Yours looks more like a meal!

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  8. Your soup looks great, pretty bowl!! I liked it, but did not try it on anyone else in the family ;)

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  9. I agree with Nana. You either like or dislike Gazpacho. There is no in-between. Then there is the cold soup issue. Some people just don't like their soup cold. I didn't learn to like it until I was an adult. I wish you would try other Gazpachos (either make another recipe or two or order it at restaurants. This Gazpacho is more a crunchy veggie salad with some "slosh" added to it. Most Gazpachos that I have enjoyed have more liquid. I happened to like this very much but would not add the bread next time so there would be a bit more liquid to it.

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  10. I've eaten gazpacho most of my life (during the summer anyway), so I'm happy you at least had a chance to try it. I agree with Mary that if you don't mind that it's cold soup, you might want to try a different recipe before you write it off completely.

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