Am I wrong in thinking that a recipe for a pastoral Mediterranean soup shouldn’t require an electric blender for its preparation?
I’ve never made gazpacho before and I’m interested in trying it, but I’m put off by all these recipes that insist on using equipment that couldn’t have possibly existed at the time the dish was refined. Anyone know of a recipe for the stuff that can be made without access to an outlet?
A trick I learned from Rick Bayless (standing in his home kitchen, no less 
) was to dice the onion, then put it in a strainer and run cold water over it for a couple of minutes. He called it “de-flaming” the onion, and it’s particularly useful with red onions. Washes away some of the more pungent characteristics. I don’t do this if I’m cooking the onion down in a dish, but when using it raw I find it helps a great deal.
And, now that I think about it, he was demo-ing this roasted poblano gazpacho.
I actually wondered about this, as well, or rather as to how it was traditionally prepared, and guessed mortar & pestle, which turns out to be correct. So if you want to have at it with a mortar and pestle, feel free.
Tried making a batch of the OP’s recipe tonight. It came out OK, but I’m not 100% satisfied with it. Even after blending it and straining it it still had more pulp in it than I’d like, and I had trouble getting it to emulsify - after a few hours in the fridge the oil was separating out and I had to whisk it some prior to serving. The oil flavor is more pronounced than the tomato, and I couldn’t taste the pepper at all.
I’m wondering if a spicier pepper and maybe some beef stock would give it more zing.
I want to make it this weekend, but I doubt I can find sherry vinegar here in Japan. Is there anything else I can use to substitute for sherry vinegar? We have many vinegars here, is it a sweet taste?
Try a 3:1 ratio of red wine:balsamic vinegar.
Thank you!
Our late season toms went into a batch of this last weekend.
Very nice, it is clearly one of those recipes that will be at the whim of the produce you’ve got but I’m struggling to imagine it ever being “bad”. We put in a nice ripe chilli as well to give a bit of bite as the pepper we had didn’t really have any.
My little boy was hugely excited by it as he sees it as a liquefied salsa drink (which it is!). We knocked up a batch of pizza dough and made some pitta bread and baked them outside on a cast iron plate on the BBQ. These were dipped in the gazpacho and it was a perfect combination.
I swear I’m not imagining this… Very recently, certainly within the last month or couple of weeks there was a recipe in the New York Times that was labeled something like “The Gazpacho They Serve You in Heaven.” For the life of me, I cannot find it.
I’ve searched the NYT’s recipes, done a google search with keywords, and I can’t find that particular recipe. Thinking it might have been in the Washington Post, which is the other online paper I read, I searched there, too, but nada.
The recipe was totally blended and very smooth. No bread in it, and no chunky veg at the end.
Maybe they had to take the recipe down because it’s no longer politically correct to use word “heaven”? Surely not.
This isn’t an emergency or anything, but I’ve got the ingredients sitting out on the counter… and I’m kinda hungry… Anyone else see this recipe?
If not, feel free to share your gazpacho recipe. 
You’re not imagining it, I copied the recipe. it’s good, but it’s not to die for. But if you’ve got the ingredients sitting on a counter then what you do is puree them, then push the mixture through a sieve, and serve it in glasses.
Ingredients: about two pounds of ripe red tomatoes, cored and cut into chunks. Italian frying pepper or another long green pepper such as Anaheim or poblano. Cucumber, roughly 8 inches long, peeled and cut into chunks. 1 small mild onion, red or white, cut into chunks. 1 clove garlic. Puree these, add 2 tsp. sherry vinegar (or to taste) and 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil (plus more for drizzling. Blend until it’s foamy, then strain it through a sieve, adding more oil/vinegar as necessary for consistency.
And of course salt and pepper, to taste.
Then chill it for at least 6 hours and serve in glasses.
A million thank-yous, my friend! Hehe- 34 minutes for a reply. Gotta love the Dope.
That’s pretty simple. I’ve been reading the Gazpacho Andaluz recipe on the ATK website and they chop the tomatoes, onions, peppers, and cucumbers and toss with 1.5 tsp of kosher salt and let sit for an hour before blending. The rest of the process is similar to the recipe you gave with the traditional addition of a torn-up slice of white bread to add body.
You truly never saw the thread by Uke?
You people are all about to die, and very soon. You don’t eat nightshades, they’re poison. What’s next, an eggplant smoothie thread?
No-- I just now this very minute saw it! EEK! :eek:
Oh dear, it’s time for me to get a room next to my mother at The Home. :o
Makes three glasses:
12-15 unpeeled plum tomatoes
one large peeled cucumber
two large or three small green (Italian/Cubanelle) peppers
one small onion
salt
Garlic, oil and vinegar make it gazpacho, but bread’s not essential. Wash tomatoes and pepper, blend all ingredients (oil, salt, etc.) and go easy on the onion. Strain to remove skins and seeds. I use the back of a spoon to push it around in a big sieve over a bowl. Refrigerate tomatoes, etc. and you can drink it straight away, without chilling.
Merged two threads about this.
It’s getting to be about that time…good tomatoes are showing up at the farmers market!
I make an exceptional baba ghanoush.
Actually, its nothing special except the care I put into making it. I cut eggplants in half, rub with lemon first to prevent browning, then rub with olive oil. I olive oil a whole head of garlic, and mix sesame seeds with olive oil. I smoke cook them all on the grill.
Peel eggplants as best as I can, then slice off the root end of the garlic and squeeze smoked garlic out like the toothpaste of a Mediterranean god. And pulse it all in a blender until its all smooth…well, smooth enough.
Its not absolutely traditional – sometimes I add a spoon of soy sauce for extra umami. If you know baba ghanoush, you might not like it. But its better for me than butter on bread.