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Bring a bit of Spain to the lunch or dinner table with this recipe for homemade gazpacho. Made with a mixture of tomatoes, bell peppers, zucchini, cucumber, and spices this soup is full of refreshing flavor that'll keep you cool and satisfied on hot summer days. ## Cold Soup If you've never made authentic Spanish gazpacho, you should know that a good gazpacho recipe is much than just cold soup, it's a no-cook warm-weather essential that takes no time to prep. It originated in Andalusia along Spain's Costa del Sol where it gets searingly hot in the summer, making cold soup a welcome meal. Though some people might call it pureed salad, it's much more delicious than what that description might bring to mind. ## All About The Bread At first glance, it just looks like tomato juice, but gazpacho is exponentially better and has more nuanced summer flavors than a regular ol' tomato soup. Peppers, cucumbers, onion, garlic cloves, and zucchini go into a food processor as whole vegetables and come out a refreshing summer soup, but the secret to making gazpacho a superlative soup is bread. It's used to thicken the tomato puree, but if you use a flavorful crusty baguette (or even sourdough bread), it'll add flavor as well as body. It sounds weird and it's not ideal for low-carb and keto diets, but the flavor and texture the bread lends to the soup really does turn this soup into a bowl full of joy. ## Playing With Flavor This is a basic gazpacho recipe, but that only means there's room to play with flavor. __Olive oil:__ For flavor, this recipe calls for olive oil. If you're a connoisseur, this is a good place to use your favorite extra-virgin olive oil -- because the soup is not heated, the flavor of the oil won't change. __Vegetables:__ Bell peppers and cucumbers make this soup refreshing, but you can use different types of peppers to make the flavor more interesting. Green peppers are slightly bitter but red peppers are subtly sweet and can add vibrancy to the red of the tomatoes. This recipe also calls for fresh basil, which you can easily leave off. __Spices:__ Garlic is a prominent flavor in gazpacho, but you can balance it out with some heat from a sprinkling of cayenne pepper, or make it smoky with a little ground cumin. __Vinegar:__ If all you have on hand is plain white vinegar, you can make a great gazpacho, but other vinegars can elevate this soup. Sherry vinegar adds some sweetness, while a red wine vinegar would add little bit more acidity. ## Get Blending This is an easy, healthy recipe that any level of cook can master. It can easily be made for dinner tonight and tastes even better the next day for lunch. Whenever you decide to make it, it won't be the last time.
