Gazpacho Soup

Serves 4

Preparation Time:  25 mins

Who doesn't enjoy the taste of this Rustic Spanish soup, which requires no advance cooking, but just chilling time in the fridge!

I have tried several ways to make this soup and so many different ways of doing this, adding countless different herbs etc,  but in my opinion - just to enjoy the taste of fresh ingredients, even better if these can be sourced from the garden or greenhouse - is simply unbeatable with a fabulous flavour.

Ingredients

• 2 ½ pounds ripe red tomatoes (about 4 large or 9 small)
  
  
• 1 white sweet onion, peeled and cut into rough 1″ chunks
  
  
• 1 small cucumber (½ pound), peeled and seeded
  
  
• 2 medium red or yellow bell pepper,s cored and seeded and cut into small cubes
  
  
• 3 slices of bread without crusts (I used Sourdough) - tear into smallish chunks
  
  
• ¼ cup fresh basil leaves, plus extra for garnish
  
  
• 2 large garlic clove, peeled and minced
  
  
• ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
  
  
• 2 tablespoons sherry vinegar (or red wine vinegar - if you don't want too strong a vinegar taste, use desertspoons)
  
  
• ¾ teaspoon fine sea salt
  
  
• Freshly ground black pepper


For the Garnish

• Small handful parsley, finely chopped or small sprigs of basil
  
• Reserved tomato seeds
• Sprinkling of Rock Salt
• Sprinkling of freshly ground black pepper
  
  

AND THIS IS WHAT YOU DO.....

1. First of all, you need to large bowls, preferably a liquidiser but a hand held one will do, a sharp knife and large chopping board.
   
   
2. To prepare your vegetables, cut these into small chunks and put half of each vegetable into one bowl and the rest into the other.   However, the vegetables that go into the second bowl should be preferably cut into small delicate chunks.     
   
   
3. As a garnish for later, you can reserve about ¼ cup of the juicy tomato seeds and place them in to a third small bowl. .
   
   
4. Add half of the tomato chunks to the bowl for liquidising, and the other half to your serving bowl. Add all of the onion chunks to the bowl for liquidising.
   
5. Cut  the cucumber in half and then cut one half into chunks for liquidising, the other half into much smaller cubes in the second bowl. 
      
   
6. Cut the bell pepper into small chunks and divide between the two bowls.
   
   
7. Put the bread, basil, garlic, olive oil, vinegar, salt and about 10 twists of black pepper into the liquidiser, securely fasten the lid and blend, starting on low and increasing to high speed, until the mixture is completely smooth.
   
   
8. Pour the contents of the liquidiser into a serving bowl and then stir in the small chunks from the second bowl.
   
   
9. Adjust the seasoning, according to taste, cover and store in the fridge for two or more hours or 24 hours in advance.
   
   
10. When you are ready to serve, mix the soup with a large spoon to ensure equal distribution of chunks in the soup and then ladle into the soup bowls.
    
    
11. You can garnish with fresh sprigs of basil or mint, a further grinding of black pepper and sprinkling of rock salt granules.
    
    
12. Serve with fresh crusty baguette with unsalted butter.