If you are looking for a gazpacho recipe which is smooth and creamy, spicy, and can be whipped up in a food processor in a few seconds, you’d better keep looking. There are plenty of those recipes out there, but when I make this traditional Andalusian soup, I make it as my Spanish professor’s wife taught me several decades ago, and as I saw it made when I lived in Spain shortly after that.
Since that time, gazpacho has become a popular ‘ethnic’ dish, with so many variations it seldom resembles the simple, cold vegetable soup I came to know and love in Spain. Its predecessor was a soup made of bread, olive oil and garlic, and only after the ‘conquista’ did tomatoes enter into the picture, and with them a few other local, seasonal ingredients like onion, cucumber and sweet pepper.
So for this week’s Fiesta Friday, I would like to share this recipe I have made over the years, a recipe which has a distinctively Spanish flavour but which I am able to replicate with ingredients from my own garden – the best of both worlds.
I was instructed that a good gazpacho starts with dried, crumbled bread. Into that, crushed garlic, salt and vinegar are rubbed together, and then a generous amount of olive oil added gradually, forming a creamy base which blends easily with the fresh chopped vegetables. This is not to say that you can’t ad-lib a bit, with sweet herbs or other seasonal vegetables. I made a couple of minor changes. I used homemade whole wheat bread because that’s what I had, and I substituted purslane for the green pepper.
I have written about purslane before. To learn how to identify it and about its nutritional properties, please visit this post. You will see that by adding purslane, I actually upped the omega-3 content, among other things. I gather purslane does grow in Spain, because in researching it, I found it grows pretty much everywhere. I have small patches of it throughout my garden, and one pot where it volunteered and smothered the pepper plants I was starting.
So it is appropriate I chose to replace peppers with it.
Gazpacho with Purslane
Ingredients
2 lbs ripe tomatoes, peeled and seeded
1 slice dried bread, about 2 Tbsp
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup olive oil
3 Tbsp wine or sherry vinegar
3 cloves (or more) garlic
a handful of purslane, chopped
1 thick slice sweet onion (about 2 Tbsp once grated)
1 cucumber, peeled and seeded
Method
Grate the bread to make a fine crumb and rub in the crushed garlic, salt and vinegar. Gradually add the oil and mix it vigorously.
Chop the tomato and purslane very fine. In order not to waste any of the juice, I put the seeds in a colander and strained as much juice as I could to add to the tomatoes. Grate the onion and cucumber. Add all the vegetables and combine. Chill for a couple of hours, and garnish it with an ice cube if you want it really cold.
August 15, 2014 at 1:40 pm
Your gazpacho looks delicious. I didn’t know the bit about starting with the dried bread, and it was great to learn more about the nutritional properties of purslane. Happy FF, and have a wonderful weekend! 🙂
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August 15, 2014 at 2:15 pm
Thanks. You too.
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August 15, 2014 at 2:17 pm
I learn such useful and unique things reading your blog! I didn’t know that plant was edible! I l love your bread-garlic-olive oil base for gazpacho, and that it’s pretty authentic!
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August 15, 2014 at 2:19 pm
Thanks for your comment. I believe purslane is one of the highest vegetables nutrition-wise, but it is also very pretty and tasty, which is enough for me.
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August 15, 2014 at 2:26 pm
I noticed recently the increase of gazpacho recipes on the web. I suppose it’s the summer season, the timing, that’s causing everyone to make it. I for one have never made it and actually have only had it in New Mexico (gazpacho with green tomatillo). Your dish look delicious and the purslane addition sounds like a good pairing.
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August 15, 2014 at 2:31 pm
Thanks, Ngan. I think the appeal for me is the mixture of good olive oil with plenty of garlic – a flavour combination I associate so much with Spain.
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August 15, 2014 at 4:44 pm
Looks wonderful Hilda!
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August 15, 2014 at 5:04 pm
Thanks, Lori.
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August 15, 2014 at 7:55 pm
I would probably forage the wrong plant and things would go badly! 🙂 Your soup looks so fresh and colorful!
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August 15, 2014 at 9:40 pm
I agree, if you can identify something, better not take chances. You could just use green pepper though. Thanks for dropping my and commenting.
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August 15, 2014 at 9:11 pm
Gazpacho is always a really underrated soup, I’ve alway thought. And this looks delicious! Thanks for sharing!
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August 15, 2014 at 9:36 pm
I think maybe sometimes people who underrate it have never had a good one. There are some really bad versions out. Glad you liked this recipe.
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August 15, 2014 at 9:53 pm
Yum! As always, Hilda, you are introducing me to ingredients I have never heard of. I must search out some purslane to see what it tastes like. I’m sure it is delicious, because you made it!! Looks delicious! 😀
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August 16, 2014 at 2:16 am
Thanks Julianna. I think the best way to find purslane is by weeding in a garden where the soil has been worked (I’ve never seen it in the lawn) and you’ll just come across it. That is when you take note of where it is for later use.
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August 15, 2014 at 11:06 pm
I’ve never tried gazpacho before, in any form! Yours does sound good!
i’m always introduced to ingredients I’ve never heard of when I come to your blog, I love it
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August 16, 2014 at 2:10 am
It is good at this time of year when everything is fresh and local. Hope you get a chance to try it some time.
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August 16, 2014 at 1:40 am
this is my kind of soup during summers 🙂 looks refreshingly cool
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August 16, 2014 at 2:11 am
It is refreshing. I remember eating it in Spain when the temperatures were so high it was difficult to eat anything heavier than a ‘salad soup’.
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August 16, 2014 at 2:40 am
here in New Delhi the temperature soars to 47 degrees C 😦 and very less rains 😥 Cannot even think of eating anything heavy. Soups are one of the best meals during this season 🙂
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August 16, 2014 at 3:46 am
I do remember the heat in Delhi, especially in May and June. We used to live in Vasant Vihar. I think I managed to travel to the mountains at that time of year, where it was lovely. It seems to me by August it was pretty nice and lots of flowering trees.
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August 16, 2014 at 10:03 am
because it rains in August, so it brings down the temperature 🙂
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August 16, 2014 at 6:34 am
I was wondering how purslane taste, but I read your post on it. Lemony sweet must add so much to the soup.
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August 16, 2014 at 9:30 am
How wonderful to find an authentic recipe for Gazpacho and even more wonderful that you made it using ingredients that you grew yourself 🙂
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August 16, 2014 at 2:14 pm
In Spain they would be very proud of your version of gazpacho! It’s another great ad original recipe Hilda!
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August 16, 2014 at 3:17 pm
Thanks so much. I hope no one in Spain takes exception to my couple of changes, but I do think it retains the essence of the original.
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August 17, 2014 at 3:37 am
Gosh Hilda! You are the fairy god mother of the back yard garden! A wand, a chant and boom a delicious dish :).
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August 18, 2014 at 2:33 am
What an amusing image! Thanks.
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August 18, 2014 at 2:40 am
🙂
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August 17, 2014 at 3:57 am
This is something new for me:-) thanks for the recipe
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August 17, 2014 at 2:46 pm
I didn’t even know what was gazpacho until now, nice!!!
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August 17, 2014 at 3:37 pm
That’s the great thing about blogs – I learn about new things all the time, even when I actually thought I already knew everything. haha.
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August 17, 2014 at 4:15 pm
I’ve been seeing gazpacho everywhere lately – web an YouTube. Maybe this cold soup is perfect for the summer months. When I knew that this is a kind of soup which is cold, I thought ‘huh? a cold soup?’ It sounded more like of a smoothie to me, sans the ice cubes. But after seeing various recipes and ingredients, I instantly know that this cold soup sounds great. The fine bread crumbs add more deliciousness to the soup. Thank you for sharing this, along with some tips on gazpacho, Hilda. Happy FF to you and have a fab week ahead. ❤
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August 18, 2014 at 12:23 pm
Thank you for the history behind the recipe…so enjoyed your post and recipe. Delicious!
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August 18, 2014 at 9:44 pm
your awesome- each time you introduce new new dishes and just love it…..fantastic ..
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August 19, 2014 at 2:26 pm
Hi Hilda – I much prefer your version to the creamier versions of gazpacho. And really good to know more about purslane too – you are such an inspiration – thank you for sharing this and have a wonderful week!
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