Recipe

Gazpacho Andaluz

6 servings · prep 20 min + 4 h chill · cook 0 min

→ Open in cook mode

• lunch
• iberian
• vegetarian
• vegan
• raw
• summer

Authored by the maintainer; classical Andalusian method — tomatoes, bread, oil, vinegar blended cold.

Ingredients

the base

• 1.2 kg the ripest plum or beef tomatoes you can find — Origin not credited
• 1 medium cucumber, peeled and seeded
• 1 small red bell pepper, seeded
• 100 g stale white bread, crusts removed, soaked in cold water — Puglia wheat farm
• 1 small clove garlic — Tropea allium farm

the dressing

• 3 tbsp aged sherry vinegar
• 100 ml extra-virgin olive oil — Liguria olive mill
• 1.5 tsp fine sea salt — Trapani salt pans
• Ice water to adjust consistency

the serve

• Small diced cucumber, red onion, hard-boiled egg, green pepper, jamón ham — for garnish

Method

1. Blanch the tomatoes — score the bottoms, drop into boiling water 30 seconds, plunge into ice water. The skins peel off easily. · 1 min
2. Roughly chop the peeled tomatoes, cucumber, bell pepper. Squeeze the soaked bread to remove excess water.
3. Blend tomatoes, cucumber, pepper, bread, and garlic in a high-powered blender until completely smooth — at least 90 seconds. · 2 min
4. With the motor running, stream in the olive oil. The soup will emulsify and turn paler and richer.
5. Add sherry vinegar and salt. Blend 15 seconds.
6. Pass through a fine sieve into a pitcher, pressing on the solids. This step is what separates a great gazpacho from a chunky one. Discard the pulp.
7. Adjust consistency with ice water — should be drinkable but with body. Adjust salt and vinegar. Refrigerate at least 4 hours, ideally overnight. · 240 min
8. Serve very cold, in chilled bowls, with the diced garnishes (each in its own small dish) on the side for diners to spoon onto their bowl.

Notes

Gazpacho is structurally a cold emulsion. The blender plus the fine
sieve are non-negotiable; food-processor versions remain thin and
separated. A high-powered blender (Vitamix, Blendtec) emulsifies in
90 seconds; weaker blenders need longer and don't quite reach the
same silky body.

Variants in the same Iberian family: *salmorejo* (Córdoba, no
cucumber/pepper, very thick, garnished with jamón and chopped egg);
*ajo blanco* (white gazpacho, with almonds, no tomato — the Moorish
precursor that gazpacho descends from); *porra antequerana* (thick
Antequera version, midway between gazpacho and salmorejo).