Classic gazpacho and green gazpacho

Summer is on its way and every day that goes by I feel the familiar flavours of the summer a bit more, the summers on the beach, with friends, on holiday and a lot of gazpacho.

What could not go amiss in our ‘Food’ section is the trusty recipe for gazpacho, a classic, a culinary masterpiece, a new interpretation of it, a green gazpacho, which is original and surprising. Just as tasty. You will let us know.

For 4 people.

Difficulty: low.

Cooking time: Around 10 minutes.

Classic gazpacho

Ingredients:

– 1 kg of very ripe tomatoes (essential).

– 1 small cucumber.

– 1 not very large green pepper (Andalusian style).

– 1/2 red pepper.

– 1 medium salad onion.

– 2 cloves of garlic.

– 2 or 3 spoonfuls of EVOO (extra virgin olive oil).

– A generous serving of Sherry vinegar.

– Salt and some freshly ground pepper.

– A glass of cold water.

Cooking method:

Wash the tomatoes and with the help of the tip, remove the end of them, cut them into quarters, and put them in a very large bowl.

Peel the cucumber, remove the inner section and throw it away (it usually bitters the taste). Cut the rest of the vegetables in not too large slices and add them to the previous bowl. Include the rest of the ingredients and leave it to stew in the fridge for a couple of hours at least so that the flavours are spread throughout the different vegetables. At times, I leave out this step and it turns out very nice.

Place everything in a blender, like a Thermomix or similar and blend them at maximum speed for 2 minutes.

Begin draining the mixture with the help of a colander and throw away the leftover peels and seeds that are building up. Balance it out with salt and vinegar if necessary.

Keep it in the fridge until it is time to serve it. Never add ice cubes, you will make it too watery and it will lose its authentic flavour, making it a bland tasting gazpacho.

Green gazpacho

Ingredients:

– 1/2 kg a melon without the skin nor the seeds.

– 1 medium cucumber.

– 3 Italian style green peppers.

– 2 medium avocadoes or one very large one.

– 2 very green tomatoes, without any red parts.

– 5 or 6 fresh mint leaves.

– 5 or 6 fresh (Italian) basil leaves.

– 2 small sticks of celery.

– 1 salad onion.

– the juice of one lime or half a lemon if not.

– 2 peeled cloves of garlic.

– 2 or 3 heaped spoonfuls of of EVOO (extra virgin olive oil).

– 1 generous serving of Sherry vinegar.

– 1 large class of cold water.

Cooking method:

We follow the same steps that we have carried out for the traditional gazpacho recipe.

* There are so many gazpacho recipes as cooks, the secret lies in daring to try them out, to innovate. The really essential part is that it is very cold, and that it is very flavoursome. Do not use the vinegar and salt sparingly because if you do, you will have a cold puree and not a gazpacho.

* Gazpacho keeps amazingly well for several days in the fridge, in fact it improves from the second day onwards in terms of the flavour.

Photos and recipe: cocinaDsastre.