80 Bites Recipes: Gazpacho

The days in Barcelona were so hot. So hot that I spent almost everyday at La Barceloneta, or maybe treating myself with a day trip to Sitges. I probably would have never left if I had had the choice.

Barcelona is such an alluring, colorful and vibrant city that it's hard to forget a moment. Back in 2005, on one of those scorchers, I snuck into a cheap bar on a side street off of Las Ramblas. It was cool and dark, maybe with one or two old fellows bellied up to the bar. There, I saw a sign. Gazpacho.

In my broken high school Spanish, I ordered a tall, cold one. The chunky soup was served to me in an icy beer mug. I took my first sip and...well, it was darn good. That gazpacho will forever be in my memories as a quintessential summer food.

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Here's my recipe for a super quick gazpacho for when you dont want to use the oven, fire up the grill or generally turn your kitchen into a sauna. Bonus: dinner will be on the table in less than 10 minutes.

This is a super basic, super easy recipe. You can adjust the ingredients to what you prefer, like no onion, adding in a head of garlic, or putting in more cucumber or red peppers. If you want to make it fancy, you can throw the veggies in the juicer for a thin soup and then add in tiny chopped pieces of the vegetables for texture and presentation. Use it as a jumping off point if you've never made it before, then let your imagination go wild using other fruits and vegetables.

Gazpacho

4 medium sized tomatoes
1/2 long cucumber
1 red pepper
slice of red onion
tiny piece of day old French bread (optional)
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon white vinegar
salt to taste

Start by washing the tomatoes, cucumber and red pepper. Discard the stem and seeds out of the red pepper, cut the tomatoes into halves and peel the cucumber. Then, simply throw all of the veggies, the bread, olive oil, vinegar and salt into the blender and give it a whirl. This should take no more than a minute and a half, depending on your blender.

That's it. Serve in bowls or frosty mugs and enjoy! This recipe probably serves about 2, but portion sizes aren't my strong point.

Leave a comment if you try this and let us know how it was! Or, do you have any other amazing combos for gazpacho? Can't wait to hear from you!