Creamy Spanish Gazpacho

Gazpacho is my favourite food in the summer. I adore the chunky, spicy, salsa-like variety and object to fancy watermelon and "white" gazpacho soups. More recently, I have opened up to the idea of creamy gazpacho, and may have even become addicted to this more authentic style of cold, Spanish soup. I have even converted a few gazpacho-haters with a slightly modified version of this recipe.

Ingredients

• 5-6 ripe juicy tomatoes  
• 1 garlic clove
• 1/2 white onion (or 4 green onions for a milder onion taste)
• 1/2 green pepper
• 1 red pepper
• 1 cucumber (about 6-7 inches long)
• 3 tablespoons red wine vinegar (or more if you like it tangy)  
• ¹⁄₂ tablespoon salt
• 1/2  cup virgin olive oil (or less if you prefer less fat)
• 1 piece gluten-free bread (or more if it is small)  
• handful of chopped cilantro 
• 1 ts of red pepper flakes 
• Optional: Garnish with chopped green onions, green and red peppers and cucumber

 

 Instructions

1. Remove stems from tomatoes and cut into 4-5 pieces each
2. Peel the garlic clove
3. Peel the onion and chop
4. Remove seeds from peppers and chop coarsely 
5. Peel cucumber and cut into several pieces
6. Place bread in a bowl with water in order to soak it. Once soaked, squeeze as much water out as possible, with your hands. Set aside.
7. In a high speed blender, add tomatoes, garlic, onion, pepper, cucumber, bread. Add remaining ingredients and blend at the highest speed and power.  Continue until the soup is creamy and there are no pieces left. 
8. Pour into a glass bowl, cover and let it chill overnight in the fridge.