Gazpacho
Gazpacho is a chilled tomato soup that came from Spain, and it’s the perfect cold food for a hot summer day when it’s tomato season. And this post also has a fun story about how I learned to make Gazpacho from my food blogging friends, many years ago!
In the very early days of my blog I learned to make this Gazpacho with Red and Yellow Tomatoes from my food blogging friends! It started when my friend Elise made Gazpacho and posted about it on Simply Recipes. Then my friend Alanna noted Elise’s recipe, tried it herself, and mentioned to me that she was going to be posting her version. Alanna encouraged me to make it too and share my version. And she also told me our mutual friend Nic was going to be making Gazpacho that day. (This was back in the more-cooperative, less-competitive early days of blogging!)
And my friend Genie had recently shared Yellow Tomato Gazpacho, which inspired me to use a combination of red and yellow tomatoes, since that’s what was ripe in the garden. Without a doubt making Gazpacho with my food blogger friends was a life-changing experience for me. And for sure I’ll never go another summer for the rest of my life without making gazpacho a few times, especially whenever I have tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, parsley, and basil in my garden.
Just how good is this cold summer soup? Well, after Kara and I made Gazpacho again recently for a much-needed photo update, I shared the Gazpacho with her. And then I ate my leftovers four days in a row for breakfast! If you have fresh tomatoes or can get them at the farmer’s market, this is a must-make summer recipe!
What is Gazpacho?
Wikipedia on Gazpacho describes it as “a cold soup made of raw, blended vegetables.” That’s a pretty good description but it doesn’t capture the fresh flavor that you get when you combine perfect ripe summer tomatoes with other fresh raw foods like peppers, cucumbers, onion, celery, parsley, and basil. But don’t skip the relatively generous amount of olive oil and the Green Tabasco Sauce (affiliate link), lemon juice, Gluten-Free Worcestershire Sauce (affiliate link), and tomato juice, all of which add to the great flavor!
How did I make low-carb and gluten-free Gazpacho?
This chilled tomato soup often has bread for thickening, which I didn’t miss in my lower-carb and gluten-free version version.
What ingredients do you need for this recipe?
- Red Wine Vinegar (affiliate link)
- Minced Garlic (affiliate link)
- sea salt
- ripe yellow tomatoes
- ripe red tomatoes(see notes)
- cucumber
- small red onion
- red bell pepper
- yellow bell pepper
- celery
- fresh parsley
- fresh basil
- extra virgin olive oil
- fresh-squeezed lemon juice, I used my fresh-frozen lemon juice
- Green Tabasco Sauce (affiliate link), or your favorite hot sauce (see notes)
- Worcestershire sauce or Gluten-Free Worcestershire Sauce (affiliate link)
- tomato juice
- fresh ground pepper
How to Make Gazpacho with Red and Yellow Tomatoes:
(Scroll down for complete recipe with nutritional information.)
- Chop up yellow tomatoes, red tomatoes, red onion, cucumber, celery, red bell pepper, and yellow bell pepper.
- You’ll also need some chopped fresh basil and fresh parsley, plus a little more chopped basil for garnish if desired.
- Get a large plastic or glass bowl big enough to hold all the ingredients. Put red wine vinegar into the bowl.
- In food processor with steel blade combine garlic with sea salt (or use mortar and pestle and then add salt mixture to food processor bowl.)
- Add tomatoes to food processor and pulse until desired texture. Put tomatoes into plastic bowl with vinegar.
- Put cucumber and red onion into food processor, pulse to desired texture, and remove to bowl.
- Repeat with celery, red pepper, and yellow pepper, pulsing together.
- Stir parsley, basil, olive oil, lemon juice, tabasco, Worcestershire, and tomato juice into vegetables in bowl.
- Add more tomato juice if it seems too thick. we thought 2 1/2 cups was just right.
- Taste and season with fresh ground black pepper and more salt if needed.
- Chill overnight for flavors to develop, although you will probably have to have a bowl or two before putting the rest in the refrigerator!
The Gazpacho Adventure Continues:
Now that you’ve heard about my Gazpacho adventure many years ago, head over to A Veggie Venture to see Alanna’s Gazpacho and Baking Bites to see Nic’s Gazpacho. And if you have some green tomatoes I also recommend my Green Tomato Gazpacho with Cucumber and Avocado.
Gazpacho
Gazpacho is the perfect cold food for a hot day, and I love my version with Red and Yellow Tomatoes!
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
- 2 tsp. minced garlic
- 2 tsp. sea salt
- 3 ripe yellow tomatoes, diced
- 3 ripe red tomatoes, diced (see notes)
- 1 cucumber, peeled and diced
- 1 small red onion, diced
- 1 red bell pepper, diced
- 1 yellow bell pepper, diced
- 2 large stalks celery, diced
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil (see notes)
- 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 3 T fresh lemon juice
- 1/2 tsp. Green Tabasco, or your favorite hot sauce (see notes)
- 1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce (see notes)
- 2 1/2 cups tomato juice (or more if you prefer)
- fresh ground pepper and additional salt to taste
Instructions
- Chop up yellow tomatoes, red tomatoes, red onion, cucumber, celery, red bell pepper, and yellow bell pepper.
- You'll also need some chopped fresh basil and fresh parsley, plus a little more chopped basil for garnish if desired. I used my Herb Scissors (affiliate link) to get the nice even strips of basil for the garnish.
- Get a large plastic or glass bowl big enough to hold all the ingredients. Put red wine vinegar into the bowl.
- In food processor with steel blade combine garlic with sea salt (or use mortar and pestle and then add salt mixture to food processor bowl.)
- Add tomatoes to food processor and pulse until desired texture. (I left mine rather chunky with pieces that varied from 1/4-1/2 inch.)
- Put tomatoes into plastic bowl with vinegar.
- Put cucumber and red onion into food processor, pulse to desired texture, and remove to bowl.
- Repeat with celery, red pepper, and yellow pepper, pulsing together. (I made all the vegetables about the same size, but you may want to make some bigger and some smaller.)
- Stir parsley, basil, olive oil, lemon juice, tabasco, Worcestershire, and tomato juice into vegetables in bowl. (Add more tomato juice if it seems too thick. we thought 2 1/2 cups was just right.)
- Taste and season with fresh ground black pepper and more salt if needed.
- Chill overnight for flavors to develop, although you will probably have to have a bowl or two before putting the rest in the refrigerator just to reassure yourself how good it is.
Notes
Use all red tomatoes or all yellow tomatoes if that's what you have! Use extra chopped basil or parsley for garnish if you like. Use hot sauce to taste. Use gluten-free Worcestershire sauce if needed, and for vegetarians, look for a brand without anchovies.
This recipe adapted by Kalyn with inspiration from Elise's Gazpacho recipe and Genie's Gazpacho recipe.
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
10Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 91Total Fat: 6gSaturated Fat: 1gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 5gCholesterol: 0mgSodium: 715mgCarbohydrates: 10gFiber: 2gSugar: 5gProtein: 2g
Nutrition information is automatically calculated by the Recipe Plug-In I am using. I am not a nutritionist and cannot guarantee 100% accuracy, since many variables affect those calculations.
Low-Carb Diet / Low-Glycemic Diet / South Beach Diet Suggestions:
Gazpacho with Red and Yellow Tomatoes is a great dish for carb-conscious diet plans, and for any phase of the South Beach Diet. My version of Gazpacho omits the traditional bread and uses plenty of olive oil. Gazpacho is usually eaten as a small bowl for an appetizer, so nutritional information is calculated on 10 servings, but even if you eat more than that this is pretty low in carbs.
Find More Recipes Like This One:
Use Tomato Recipes or Soup Recipes for more recipes like this one. Use the Recipes by Diet Type photo index pages to find more recipes suitable for a specific eating plan. You might also like to Follow Kalyn’s Kitchen on Pinterest to see all the good recipes I’m sharing there.
Historical Notes for This Recipe:
I first made Gazpacho with my food blogging friends in August 2006, yikes! This recipe was updated with greatly-improved photos in August 2020 and updated with more information in August 2021.
23 Comments on “Gazpacho”
I just made and had a small bowl–with no wait time, It’s already fabulous. I hope there is some left so we can see what it tastes like chilled overnight. Â Honestly, this may be the best I’ve ever made. I’ve been so disappointed by gazpachos that taste so blah. Thanks for a great recipe, (I ended up pureeing the red one vinegar, garlic, oil, parsley and basil together. I will be adding some basil to garnish later since I’m growing a ton right now.)
So glad you are enjoying it! I do like the idea of pureeing those things together.
Your recipe is almost the same as mine. I’ve not tried the celery, thinking it would be stringy, but I will next time. I sneak in some garlic just because I like it, and it ends up tasting like salsa. I can drink a blender full in two days or less. So delicious, so healthy, so addictive! The deer ate my tomato plants, so I will have to get to the farmers market this week. Ciao!
Hi Dolores, fun hearing from you! I l do add garlic but I am thinking maybe even more garlic would be even better.
Damn deer. I haven’t had too many tomatoes yet this year, too hot.
Having lived almost 20 years in Andalucia I can say that gazpacho is still my number one. Those store-bought soups always have some bread crumbs which is not so good. But then again it¨s so easy to grab a ready-made product in the supermarket.
Thank you for sharing this recipe with us.
Glad you like the recipe! How I would love to go to Andalucia and try it there!
Kate, thanks, I didn't realize that but just made a note of it in the recipe.
This looks delicious! I've been missing Gazpacho ever since I visited Spain last summer.
I do have one modification, though: This recipe is listed under "vegetarian recipes." I would make a note that Worchestershire sauce contains anchovies, so vegetarians will have to buy a vegetarian version.
This blog is beautiful, and I can't wait to try the recipes!
I can’t wait to give your recipe a try. i make gazpacho weekly in the hot summer months and it always helps to have a few recipes to switch things up a bit.
Wonderful Gazpacho, I can’t believe I took so long to post a comment!! I have found my new breakfast “vacation” from eggs!! Thanks so much!
Thank you so much for posting this recipe! I’ve been looking for ways to use up our overabundance of tomatoes, when I really don’t like them very much. This, however, turns out to be one of those ways that I like tomatoes.
I’ve linked back to this recipe from my blog.
I like the cooking with friends idea–very cozy.
Kalyn,
Your gazpacho looks and sounds divine. I’ve been buying loads of organic tomatoes lately so I think I’ll try your recipe. it’s definitely going in my del.icio.us cookbook!
Now this channeling stuff is getting eerie. I just barely sent Elise an e-mail to congratulate her for her blog being mentioned on Time’s list of 50 best web sites (that’s Time magazine folks, way to go Elise) and while I’m writing it she leaves me that comment. We’ve all synchronized our thoughts over the gazpacho I guess.
Hi Kalyn, what a nice surprise to return to my computer to see my favorite bloggers stirring up gazpacho! I love this recipe. Can’t believe you’ve been growing tomatoes for this long without ever having made gazpacho. Isn’t it terrific? I wish I could just pop on over and have a bowl of yours. Cheers, Elise. 🙂
Tanna, it’s a mystery to me for sure, now that I’ve made it.
Genie, thanks to you and Elise for the inspiration.
Kevin, you’re right!
Ruth, just make some and eat it all yourself.
Nic, I thought your smoother version looked fabulous too.
Great photos, Kalyn. I tend to go for the really smooth gazpacho, myself, but your presentation is head and shoulders above mine!
I love gazpacho and your’s looks particularly delicious. Too bad I can’t get my Honey to eat it.
Thanks for letting me live vicariously though.
Kalyn, your version looks fabulous! I’m so glad you’re enjoying your creation — gazpacho’s definitely one of my favorite summer treats.
Hi Alanna,
Getting a good photo of this was a challenge, considering my limited skill with the new camera. But I have Elise to thank for steering me towards the camera too. I can’t rave enough about how much I loved the Gazpacho. No idea why I never made it sooner, since I always liked it in restaurants. I see we were channeling each other with our comments too, since I barely left a comment on your blog when this one popped up here.
For breakfast?! Me too!! Your photos are terrific! And it’s so cool that you loved the gazpacho so much!! Thanks for “channeling”, I love the impromptu-ness.
Kalyn,
Gazpacho is one of the best reasons on Earth for tomatoes (not that they need an excuse).
Why more people don’t make this everyother day while tomatoes and veggies are so good maybe one of the great mysteries of life. Yes, when there are no other mouths to feed – I’ll eat this for breakfast lunch and dinner.