A summer gazpacho using garden fresh vegetables – no tomato juice or bread added. A spicy, chunky, cool soup that’s very tomatoey and perfect on a hot day.
I decided to make gazpacho since my tomatoes all seem to be ripen at the same time. This is not a traditional gazpacho – it has no tomato juice or bread added. It’s a thick, purely vegetable based soup that’s very tomatoey and delicious. It’s spicy and cool and slightly sweet – perfect on a hot summer day.
I hardly ever make gazpacho at home since I never seem to have tomato juice in the pantry. That’s what happened this time – lots and lots of tomatoes but no tomato juice. So I thought, well I have so many tomatoes why don’t I just puree some extra tomatoes to make up for the missing juice. Turns out you don’t need tomato juice to make gazpacho.
In an earlier test version of the recipe I tried using a blender – but it just did not work. Much too frothy, even the next day. So stick with a food processor.
A couple of notes:
- Did you know you can grate tomatoes? I did not know this until recently. It’s the easiest way to remove the skin from a tomato if you don’t want to boil and peel them and if you don’t have a food mill (which I do not have). You just cut the tomatoes in half – cutting through the middle (think of a globe – the top/stem end being the north pole and the middle being the equator). After slicing the tomato in half, gently squeeze out any seeds. Next, cupping the tomato in your hand – tomato skin closest to your hand – grate the tomato on the large holes of a box grater. The tomato skin will protect your hand and stay in one piece as you grate. You’re left with a puree of tomatoes and you can just discard the skin – it was so easy and I can’t believe how well it worked and how fast it was to do.
- Rather than adding all the vegetables to a food processor at once and pureeing, I put each vegetable individually in the food processor. This gave me more control over how chunky I wanted each vegetable to be. For example, I wanted the cucumber to be a bit more chunky than the red pepper – so I processed the cucumber for a shorter time – just pulsed until it was the desired consistency. The red pepper I processed for longer so it would be a smoother puree.
- I don’t like things too heavily spiced, so if you like things spicy and want a bit of heat then please up the amount of red pepper flakes or cumin.
- You’ll need to refrigerate the soup overnight. It really needs to blend/marinate overnight. So let it sit in the fridge overnight or even better for 24 hours before eating.
Gazpacho
A summer gazpacho using garden fresh vegetables – no tomato juice or bread added. A spicy, chunky, cool soup that’s very tomatoey.
- Prep Time: 30 mins
- Total Time: 30 mins
- Yield: 2 to 4
Ingredients
- 5 large tomatoes – grated (see note about grating).
- 1 large cucumber – peeled and seeded. I left a little of the peel on in strips.
- 1 red bell pepper
- 2 scallions
- 1/2 red onion
- 3 tbs red wine vinegar
- 1 tbs olive oil
- 3 cloves of garlic put through a press
- 1 tbs minced parsley
- 8 twists of pepper from a pepper mill
- 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
- 1/2 tsp cumin
Instructions
- Grate 5 tomatoes (see note above about grating tomatoes) into a bowl.
- Process cucumber in food processor using the pulse button until you have a chunky puree. Add to bowl.
- Process red pepper in food processor until smoothly pureed. Add to bowl.
- Process scallions and red onion in food processor until finely minced. Add to bowl.
- Add red wine vinegar, olive oil, garlic, parsley, black pepper, red pepper flakes and cumin to bowl.
- Stir gently until everything is blended together.
- Marinate overnight (12 to 24 hours) and serve.
This may be a silly question, but I have never had Gazpacho before. Is this something you would eat warm or cold?
★★★★
Hi Cynthia – Gazpacho is usually best in the summer when tomatoes are abundant, really ripe and super flavorful. It’s a cold, slightly spicy, tomato soup that’s really refreshing in the summer. So you may want to wait a bit to make it. If you’re a big tomato fan – you definitely should try it when the farmers markets (or your backyard if you’re a gardener) are overflowing with tomatoes. Hope that helps!
I love gazpacho! It is the perfect summer dish. There is something almost decadent about it, yet it’s so light and healthy! And great tip about grating your tomatoes, I never would have thought to do that. : )
Hi Crystal – grating tomatoes was new to me also. Am thinking of other ways to use the technique since I’m having a bit of a tomato overflow at the moment. I wonder if you can freeze tomato purée??? Have a good one!
A gazpacho recipe without bread and tomato juice is much appreciated because I hardly ever have either of those on hand. Your recipe is finally one that’d only require me to pick up one or two additional ingredients.
By the way: I’d offer up to take any tomato overload you have 🙂 – fresh from the garden are the very best ones. Maybe I can convince my mum to bring me some the next time she visits. I can only imagine this tastes even better with homegrown tomatoes.
Thanks, Miss Polkadot!! Definitely hit your mom up for tomatoes if you can – or maybe there’s a local farmers market near by. When you make it, let me know how it turned out. Have a good one.
Oh I have to wait a bit longer for the fresh tomatoes but I can’t wait to try this soup! It sounds wonderful!
Thanks so much, Barbara. Hope you make it once your tomatoes get around to ripening :).
This is a fabulous summer soup, Geraldine! I am a big fan of Gazpacho, especially when the tomatoes and cucumbers are fresh and in season! I’ve not tried Gazpacho with red bell pepper like this, so I am looking forward to making your recipe! How wonderful that your garden is bursting; the tomatoes are stunning! Thank you!!
Hi Traci: This was a good recipe to use up a bunch of tomatoes – but for the rest of the tomatoes, I’m like a tomato fairy – dropping them off at friends and neighbors houses! Enjoy.