Gazpacho, Spanish Authentic Recipes

Gazpacho has ancient roots. There are a number of theories of its origin, including as an Arab soup of bread, olive oil, water and garlic that arrived in Spain with the Moors, or via the Romans with the addition of vinegar. Once in Spain it became a part of Andalusians cuisine, particularly Seville, using stale bread, garlic, olive oil, salt, and vinegar, similar to ajoblanco

Tomato was added to the recipe in the 1700s. Although Cortez found tomatoes growing in Montezuma’s gardens in 1519, and it became part of the culinary bounty brought back to Spain by the 16th-century conquistadors, as part of the Nightshade family of plants it was deemed poisonous and relegated to decorative plant status. A famine in Italy 200 years later caused starving peasants to eat the tomatoes to no ill effect, and the tomato entered the European culinary tradition.

Gazpacho remained popular with field hands as a way to cool off during the summer and to use available ingredients such as fresh vegetables and stale bread.

There are many modern variations of gazpacho, often in different colors and omitting the tomatoes and bread in favor of avocados, cucumber, parsley, watermelon, grapes, meat stock, seafood, and other ingredients. Gazpacho has become an almost generic term for chilled vegetable soup.

The Recipes :

• 1 Kilo tomatoes (preferable plum tomatoes)
• 1/2 small onion (60 grams)
• 1 small green pepper
• 1 small cucumber (the small chubby Spanish type)
• 1 small cup of olive oil
• 2 desert spoons of vinager
• 200 grams of bread from the day before, soaked in water
• Small portions of diced tomatoes, red and green peppers, cucumber, onion and bread or croutons to sprinkle on top.

Steps:

1: Put the tomatoes, onion, pepper, cucumber, vinegar, oil and bread into a liquidizer. If you want to dilute it, add a glass of water. Tip: if you want to go for a tangy garlic taste, add a small amount of fresh garlic to the mixture before liquidizing.

2: Put the mixture into a bowl, add salt and pepper and leave the gazpacho to chill for at least an hour. If you want to eat it straight away, you can put some ice cubes in to cool it down. Gazpacho is a Summer dish which is meant to hydrate and cool down your body. So the colder the better!!

3: Serve the gazpacho en soup bowls, with the portions of diced tomatoes, pepper, cucumber, onion, croutons etc on the table, so that everyone can add them to their bowl as they prefer. Tip: you can also sprinkle diced serrano ham or hard boiled egg.

Tips/Secrets: Make sure you have enough time to put it in the fridge so that you can serve your gazpacho really chilled. Use quality produce. Vary the ingredients according to your personal taste. Gazpacho makes a delicious starter to a meal.

from Wikipedia and euroresidentes.com