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Guess What? Gazpacho!

Gazpacho

We've been enjoying unexpectedly warm and sunny weather lately, so I thought a chilled soup would be apt. Flicking through The Soup Book I came across Geetie Singh's recipe for gazpacho. After a busy week and a busy Saturday spent preparing dinner for guests last night (actually, the spouse was busy preparing dinner), I was delighted to see that the preparation for the gazpacho was limited to peeling and chopping. Even having to get the food processor out didn't pose too much of a challenge. Tough decision-making was the theme of this recipe, starting with the options for certain ingredients:

  • spring onions or red onion
  • thyme, marjoram, parsley, mint or basil
  • fresh chilli or cayenne pepper.

I have underlined the choices I made.

Gazpacho
Breaking free from the constraints of the ingredients list, I used an orange pepper rather than the red indicated in the recipe. Other ingredients included garlic, cucumber, tomatoes, stale bread, red wine vinegar and olive oil. Continuing to make choices and decisions, I chose not to chill a serving bowl beforehand, I chose brown bread rather than white, I stuck with the stated amount of water rather than adding more as suggested, and I chose not to "whizz the soup briefly" (is there any other way of whizzing? Is there such an activity as protracted whizzing?). After whizzing protractedly, I divided the soup into two batches, one of which I have frozen.

Having left the soup chilling in the fridge, I spent the afternoon relaxing. At dinnertime I called the spouse and the younger offspring and dished up the gazpacho. The spouse tucked in and gave his verdict: "It's like drinking a salad." He liked it and put it on his notional "make again" list. I liked it too. The younger offspring seemed to be struggling. "I don't really like cold soups," he explained. Fair enough.

If Millie is reading, I apologise for the brevity of this blog entry.

Until the 135th soup,

Minnie

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