Last year during the summer I very often served cold soups: traditional cold soup with beautiful colours, cucumber-peppermint cold soup and my favourite cold soup with radishes and a hint of thyme. This year we gambled on tomatoes and pepper, i.e. gazpacho. This refreshing soup comes from Andalucia. It should be prepared with the ripest tomatoes, red pepper, fresh cucumber, garlic and white bread. Depending on the province of Spain, this soup is served with diced eggs, ham, olives or nuts. In eastern Andalucia it is served also ajo blanco – gazpacho with almonds, garlic, olive oil and bread but without tomatoes and pepper. I have eaten gazpacho sprinkled with olive oil and with croutons. It was great, but I prefer olive oil and bread mixed in the soup. Prepare gazpacho the way you like it.

Ingredients (for 2 people)
3 big tomatoes
1 big pepper + half a pepper for decoration
2 fresh cucumber + one cucumber for decoration
half a chili pepper
half a small onion
1 clove of garlic
half a roll
1 tablespoon of cider vinegar
1 teaspoon of sugar
100ml of olive oil
salt and pepper
nigella and basil

Briefly blanch the tomatoes and peel them. Peel the cucumber. Cube the tomatoes, pepper, 2 cucumbers, onion, chili pepper, roll and garlic. Add salt and leave to one side for 15 minutes, so that the vegetables can be drained. Drain the vegetables, but don't pour the juice away. You can drink it or use it to improve the texture of the soup. Add the cider vinegar, and sugar and blend them in thoroughly. Add a bit of vegetable juice if necessary. Blending constantly, pour in the olive oil. Blend to mix the olive oil with the soup. Spice it up with salt and pepper. Dice the rest of the pepper and cucumber. Serve the soup cool with cucumber and pepper and if you like with nigella and basil.

Enjoy your meal!

Try also
Cold cucumber soup
The best soup for hot weather – cold radish soup
Strong and warming – pepper-tomato soup