Best Gazpacho Recipe

Looking for a nice gazpacho recipe- Help -Thanks- jk

[Jeserf]

I consider mine to be one of the best and whenever I get it at a restaurant, it's never as good. The trick to the cold temperature without letting it sit if you like it fresh (and thus a bit 'frothy') is nicely chilled bowls.

1 english cucumber
2 vidalia onions
1 red pepper
1 green pepper
1 serrano pepper
1 bottle of tomato juice (low sodium if you can find it....not vegetable juice)
3-4 roma tomatoes, seeded
red wine vinegar
S&P to taste

for all of the vegetables, half go in to the food processor in a large chop. The rest of the veggies get diced and put into whatever container you will store/serve your gazpacho in. Pour half of the tomato juice over the veggies and stir.
Pulse the veggies and then add half the tomato juice. Pulse again.
Mix the processed ingredients in to the juice/diced vegetable mix. Stir together in the container with salt and pepper to taste. top with red wine vinegar before serving.

I've had so many compliments, it's super easy, insanely healthy, and I love it.

[Querencia]

If you leave out the bread you can make a very low-cal gazpacho that is good: 4 tomatoes, 1 green pepper, 1 onion, 1 cucumber. Peel tomatoes by pouring boiling water over them to loosen skins, peel onion, peel cucumber. Process each vegetable separately to a coarse consistency. Add to all pulp a 46-oz can of tomato juice. Season to taste with olive oil, wine vinegar, salt, garlic powder, cumin, and flaked hot chili paper. Keeps in refrigerator for a week.

[millygirl]

I just tried the gazpacho from Silver Palette. Very nice combination of flavours, although I confess to leaving out the raw egg. Didn't appeal to me and felt it wasn't necessary. I think I was right. I would be interested in hearing from those that have made it using the raw egg.

[slcook]

Just a little fyi- I made Cook's Gazpacho, really easy. Great fresh flavors. Added a yellow squash. Loved it both immediately, and chilled the nest day with a little sour cream, chopped avocado and splash of olive oil.

[Antilope]

***** Paraphrased Recipe *****

Cook's Illustrated Quick Food Processor Gazpacho

Makes about 3 quarts, serving 8 to 10. Published July 1, 2001.

A traditional garnish for gazpacho are more of the diced vegetables used in the soup. Cut up some additional vegetables for use as a garnish.

Other garnish ingredients can include garlic croutons, chopped pitted black olives, chopped hard-cooked eggs, and finely diced avocados.

Serve soup in chilled bowls.

Ingredients

3 ripe medium beefsteak tomatoes (about 1 1/2 pounds), cored and quartered
2 medium red bell peppers (about 1 pound), cored, seeded, and cut into rough 1-inch pieces
2 small cucumbers (about 1 pound), one peeled and the other with skin on, both seeded and cut into rough 1-inch pieces
1/2 small sweet onion (such as Vidalia, Maui, or Walla Walla) or 2 large shallots, peeled and minced (about 1/2 cup)
2 medium cloves garlic , minced or pressed through a garlic press (about 2 teaspoons)
2 teaspoons table salt
1/3 cup sherry vinegar
ground black pepper (to taste)
5 cups tomato juice
1 teaspoon hot pepper sauce (optional)
8 ice cubes
extra virgin olive oil for serving

Instructions

Process tomatoes in a food processor using the steel blades until they are chopped into 1/4 to 1-inch pieces; transfer chopped tomatoes to large bowl.

Process the cucumbers and peppers, separately. Chop until they are cut into 1/4 to 1-inch pieces.

Add the cucumbers and peppers to the bowl with tomatoes. Then add the onion, garlic, salt, vinegar, and ground black pepper to the bowl.

Let stand about 5 minutes. This allows the vegetables to begin to release their juices.

Stir in the tomato juice, the hot pepper sauce, and the ice cubes.

Cover the bowl tightly and place in fridge to the blend flavors. This will take at least 4 hours. You can allow the flavors to blend up to 2 days before serving.

Adjust salt and pepper seasonings to taste. Remove and throw away unmelted ice cubes. Serve cold. Drizzle each serving with about 1 teaspoon of extra-virgin olive oil. Add any desired garnishes (see note above).

This finished recipe can be covered and refrigerated up to 2 days.

[DeirdreReid]

The Cook's recipe has been my go-to recipe for a long time, although it's been a while since I made it. Last time I took it in a large thermos on a hike. THAT was a fantastic surprise lunch addition for everyone.

[queeks]

I used to make a speedy gazpacho when I came home for a short lunch. Put tomatoes, onion, hot pepper, green pepper, cilantro and water in a blender for a short time on chop. You can add yogurt if you like it creamy.

Here's an unusual gazpacho recipe:

YELLOW GAZPACHO AND BLACKENED SHRIMP COCKTAIL
(By Chef Peter deLong of the Beaufort Inn Restaurant )

Yellow Gazpacho:
2 yellow tomatoes
1 yellow pepper
1/2 seedless cucumber
3 cloves garlic
1/4 cup champagne vinegar
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
1 teaspoon tabasco
1/4 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon salt
Shrimp:
20 peeled and deveined shrimp, size 21 to 25
2 tablespoons blackening seasoning
4 tablespoons butter

Place all ingredients for gazpacho in a food processor
and blend until souplike consistency. Chill. For
the shrimp, season them with blackening and saute in
hot butter until done, about 3 minutes. For
decoration, use a slice of cucumber, lime, sweet mini
red peppers, chives, green onions and rosemary.
Pour gazpacho into a cocktail or martini glass,
decorate with the cucumber, lime and rosemary and
chives on the side of the glass and put some sweet red
pepper in the middle of the gazpacho. Hang 5
shrimp (hot or cold) off the side of the glass. Serve.

Yield: 4 Servings

I think the whole thing tastes best well chilled.

Enjoy!

Christina

"Place all ingredients for gazpacho in a food processor
and blend until souplike consistency"

This sounds like a tasty gazpacho recipe except for
the above sentence. Nearly every gazpacho recipe I've
ever read says to puree the stuff; but you will get
much more flavor if you chop it small and leave the
food processor out of it. To combine the ingredients
just use a heavy whisk. (That's how I do it anyway, and
people generally seem to enjoy my gazpacho...)

P.S. If you are making gazpacho sans food processor you
will probably want to blanch the tomatos and peel them
prior to making the soup.

Some important secrets to making good gazpacho:

* Let it sit for a day or more before eating. The
flavors blend and the whole thing tastes better. It
also gives you a chance to adjust the seasoning.

* You may want to blanch (or lightly saute) the garlic
before adding it to the mix. The raw garlic taste can
overwhelm everything else. If you add onion, you
may want to do the same thing.

* Some gazpachos are thickened with bread. The best
approach is to tear up one- or two-day old whole wheat
bread into bite-sized chunks, put them in the bowl,
and pour the soup over them just before serving.

Josh, the best gazpacho (in a way, the ONLY gazpacho)
I've had in my life was prepared 15 minutes ahead of
lunch by my friend Inez, who's an amazing cook from
Cadiz living in Barcelona. The crux of gazpacho is its
freshness; the volatile aromas that swirl from the
just-cut vegetables. If you hold it a day, the tomatoes
won't yield that kind of meadowy perfume, etc etc, and
also their acid can "cook" the gazpacho (ala ceviche),
and that's not really what you're going for with a real
gazpacho.
I know you're a real good cook, and I'm sure that your
next-day gazpacho tastes delicious, but if you're going
for the authentic Andalusian flavor, it's got to be
very very fresh, and the flavors have to blend via
careful proportion rather than marriage over time.
Same for the garlic...yes, raw garlic can overwhelm,
but Inez would say you've got to prevent that by
carefully regulating the amount, not by taming the
flavor. She doesn't tame anything...wants it wild, and
controls it all solely via proportion. Balancing this
dish properly without safety nets is the hardest thing
in the world, though. That's why it's so hard to find a
good one (kind of like egg creams, actually...)

ciao

I agree that the gazpacho is best when it is fresh, to
give the right flavour, but I always place it in the
fridge for a little while to chill it slightly. That
makes the guests more surprised, as it changes flavour
as they eat, and more nuances come through.
The recipe posted earlier seems like a good, basic
recipe, but the trick is to make it your own, by adding
some personal touches. For instance, I almost always
add some good, extra virgin olive oil, to give
smoothness.

"I always place it in the fridge for a little while to chill it slightly. That makes the guests more surprised, as it changes flavour as they eat, and more nuances come through"

Nice!

"I almost always add some good, extra virgin olive oil"

I like Goya Extra Virgin to get an evocatively Spanish flavor. It's a bit rough and crude to use in very exposed ways, but, used sparingly in a gazpacho, it should work well.

Olive Oil E. V. of course is an essential ing. in Gaz.

Gazphaco like tomato sauce seems to vary from family to family, in Spain of course. They pretty much use the basic ings. I defintly like the flavors to meld not over night but a few hours. An interesting way of chiiling it is with a tomato sorbet served ind. with a scoop or two or tomato, cucumber juice ice cubes. One thing is certain it should not be very cold as this with alot of dishes schroud the flavors.

"I defintly like the flavors to meld not over night but a few hours"
Yeah, you lose some freshness overnight. And gazpacho's gotta be--most important of all--very very fresh tasting.

"An interesting way of chiiling it is with a tomato sorbet served ind. with a scoop or two or tomato, cucumber juice ice cubes"
Too revisionist for my taste, but I guess it could work. Problem is you won't get much tanginess from the tomatoes in sorbet. You can compensate with vinegar or lemon, but it's not the same. And it's gotta have some tang.

"One thing is certain it should not be very cold as this with alot of dishes schroud the flavors"
yeah, not VERY cold, but I do like the poster's idea of serving it just under and letting it blossom as you eat it. I like chefs who have that kind of consideration, though I guess it's impractical to work like that in a commercial restaurant (unless the place has awesome timing and really good staff)

Gazpacho is so easy to make, yet I've literally never found a version in this country that can even touch the best I've had in Spain. Some stuff can be explained by technique and ingredients, but some is just magic. Whatever the reason, here it usually tastes like cold fancy tomato soup and there it tastes like the very best use one could ever hope to make of a field of vegetables.