gazpacho

Yes I could google it, but does anyone have an easy and nice recipe?

tomatoes
cucumers
garlic cloves
red onion
red bell pepper
parsley
in blender, short, gentle surges that leave small chunks
olive oil
salt

eat

Here is my secret ingredients for gazpacho, which might make purists hurl garlic leavings & cucumber peels at me:
V-8 juice and Tony Chachere's Creole Seasoning.

Make a classic gazpacho, then taste it. If it's lacking some necessary oomph, add small amounts of those two ingredients. The V-8 does help the color, too.

Really, the classic Madrileño recipe also uses some bread, to give body. It also calls for water, & I like to spark it with a little vinegar. Be careful with bell pepper, as it can overwhelm the other ingredients. You can mince all the ingredients, or gently chunk them as above, or just blenderize the hell out of it. It's a matter of personal preference.

Here ARE my secret etc. (sheesh!)

Add a dash of red wine vinegar and black pepper to taste. Agree V8 makes a great base with the pureed vegetables, but would be wary of commercial seasonings. A small pinch of cumin can make a nice addition.

Thanks, this sounds like an easy good summer food, will give it a whirl...

GAHK I forgot vinegar. must have red wine vinegar

Reserve some vegs to dice up and use for garnishing the bowls. I agree with the V -8 juice: not traditional, but very tasty. A dash of Pimentón de La Vera is nice, too.
For a special gazpacho, introduce a good slug of chilled vodka, then garnish with peeled, boiled shrimp.
The bread can be left out, unless you want to have some crisp croutons afloat on the the soup.

The irony here in our part of Mexico is that we can seldom find decent, ripe tomatoes. They are all of the oval, Roma type, and not juicy. Also, it is now a chile Autumn here in the Pátzcuaro area.

#1, that is not the classic recipe, as soaked bread is missing! Basically, you need to soak some baguette type bread for a little while. We do not tend to put too much crust, though. If you do, do watch that it is well soaked.

The main secret is making sure that all the ingredients are blended together. Then add water and put it in a big bowl or container, and stir. It does have to be liquid!# All that creamy crap that I have seen is just not right.

Garlic is essential, and gazpacho is usually quite strong in taste. But, you can obviously add as much as you want to. Ref wine vinegar is not really that necessary. Just use the one you use for salads!

Ok; it's not the traditional recipe. Things change.
Moving along...

#9, all right!

I have posted this a few times before as this is my favorite, after a lot of versions I would even go as far as to call it the ultimate...

In a blender put:

1kg big juicy tomatoes (halved)
1 green pepper (sliced)
3/4 cucumber (Peeled and sliced)
2 dessertspoons of grated onion
2 handfuls crumbled slightly stale bread (insides not crusts)

Whizz it until smooth. Take half out and put through a sieve, put back in blender and add:

3 crushed garlic cloves (maybe a little more if feel like it...)
4 dessertspoons good olive oil
3 dessertspoons really good sherry vinegar (i disagree a bit as think really good vinegar adds to it, if you haven't got it it doesn't matter and use whatever winevinegar you have, but if you have use it.)
Salt and Pepper

To thin add a few ice cubes before putting in fridge for a couple of hours. If you like it creamy add a hard-boiled egg at the last blend.

The recipe is supposedly for 4 but 2 greedy hungry people could manage it.

zoe1979 wrote: "will give it a whirl..." Good one, Zoe!

Unesco, about being wary of commercial seasonings ~~ the product I mention above is one I've used literally for decades. It's essentially a seasoned salt innocent of msg. I eschew garlic powder & the like in my cooking, but find that a dash of this stuff simply works. As a friend of mine put it, "It's what you use when you know the food needs something, but you don't know what."

You can make a facsimile at home, & thus know exactly with what you're working: creole seasonings. Thanks for the cumin tip -- that never would have occurred to me!

Anonimo, as always, you've elevated a regular recipe into something truly special. What is Pimentón de La Vera?

Re: the romas -- I was told that they've pretty much taken over the Mexican tomato market because they yield up to three harvests a year. Bummer. However, if you throw an over-ripe roma out into the yard, you'll get a great volunteer plant with tasty "bola" tomatoes. I try to seek out heirloom varieties at markets, but they are getting more & more scarce.

bix, Pimentón de la Vera is smoked Spanish Páprika, orginating in the Valle de la Vera. It is available in sweet (mild), bitter-sweet (semi-picante) and bitter (full strength, yet nowhere near as picante as hotter chiles.

That's a nice addition, I'd say!

Here's a little Gazpacho secret, make your fave Gazpacho recipe and then add a few large cold cooked and peeled prawns to it, adds a whole new delicious dimension to it.

See #7, Guruwil.