Summer Gazpacho

It’s apparently summer. But it isn’t really… the weather now is just spring’s big hangover until autumn hits us. There was however, one blissful week around mid- May where the sun did put his hat on. Not only was it boiling, but the Shouty Man was selling a bag of tomatoes for £1. The Shouty Man deserves his own introduction. I live next to a market in York. Every evening, without fail, a man on one of the fruit and veg stalls tries to fob off all the mushy, sweaty or just plain unloved bags of fruit or veg that didn’t get sold that day at reduced prices. At first, I thought living next to all this discounted food would be a great opportunity but as usual, I promptly became scared of the Shouty Man. I feel awful if I don’t have a pound to pick up something when I pass him on the way home. I avoid his eye, go round the other street to get home, or worse, cave in and break a note somewhere so I have change to buy some sweaty strawberries. But on the days where I do have change in my pocket, I’m likely to spend it there, like I did on that fateful hot evening I made gazpacho.

Ingredients

• About 500g ripe tomatoes
• 2 red or yellow peppers
• ½ a cucumber
• 1 clove of minced garlic
• White wine vinegar
• 1 big handful of stale bread, broken up into chunks
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Goat’s cheese (optional but I love it)

Method:

1. The best way to do this is to roughly chop everything you have and shove it all in a big bowl, ready to blend it all up in batches..


2. After some dedicated chopping, you should have a big bowl full of tomatoes, peppers and cucumber, with a sprinkling of garlic on top. I like to keep the seeds in the cucumber, to save adding so much water for that soupy consistency. Reserve about a handful of tomato and pepper for a garnish later.


3. Transfer a few handfuls of the mix to your blender, along with say, 1 tsp of white wine vinegar per two big handfuls. Whizz everything until smooth, along with about a quarter of a cup of water to loosen. I like the soup to be velvety smooth and without chunks, but it’s up to you.


4. Transfer the mix into new bowl and continue to blend the rest of the ingredients in batches.


5. When you’re finished, taste the soup for seasoning. It’ll need a big scrunch of both salt and peppers to get the flavour right. Check the vinegar levels too, there should be just enough in there for a little tang on the tongue. As you’re checking things, make sure the soup is at the thickness you’d like. You can always add a dash more water, or tomato juice.


6. I chilled my soup quickly by putting it in the freezer with a few ice cubes, but if you’re patient, just bung it in the fridge for an hour or so.


7. To serve, I ladled a spoonful of soup over the ripped up chunks of stale bread. I let them soak for a minute or two, but wanted to keep them chewy, then placed them at the bottom of a bowl before ladling over my chilled soup. I finely chopped the reserved red pepper and tomato to put on top along with a rough sprinkle of goat’s cheese. As usual, a customary drizzle of peppery olive oil finished things off nicely.