Looking for something soothing against the heat of a scorching day? Try this Spanish Gazpacho to enjoy a bit of a breeze.

When summer is peeping around the corner so does our appetite grow for lighter more vegetable based diet. Not as we wouldn’t want to eat fresh chilled salads day in and day out during the cold winter months but under the scorching sun a bowl of green slips much easier down.

Not to mention those grill parties with burgers full of amazing seasonal veggies. Just even thinking about them is enough to call the gang together and set the earliest possible date for a gathering.

The worst part of such grill parties could be, apart from cleaning up the mess afterwards, is waiting for the food to get ready. Sure, this is the part when we can socialize and chat about all the things, we haven’t had a chance to talk before which is for some of the main reason to go to parties.

But for those, who go for the food itself, could be agonizing times. Maximizing the pleasures, we can get from the food while still adhering to socially acceptable norms requiring careful planning and care.

Just imagine how a deliciously prepared burger with hours of invested time in preparation and selection of perfect ingredients would fall flat on our taste buds when we aren’t hungry enough because we snacked our way up to the point of carelessness.

Of course, we can easily avoid such situations by not snacking on anything or even better not eating anything on the day of the grill and waiting eagerly for those juicy tasty bits but that could easily backfire in social settings.

What if, we are sort of a person who is angry when get hungry?

Well, most of us are in this category as hunger being a sort of evolutionary survival reflex that protects us from being starved to death.

So, basically without our knowledge or any control over it, the drive to feed ourselves as fast as possible when there is available food source, could ruin our social endeavor of being liked by our friends.

It’s a psychological thing, not our fault. We have a goal to get fed and our unconscious mind will do anything in its power to get us closer to that goal, even if it means to be a bit rude.

What we can do about it, is to smoothen our time of waiting by chilling our mind and appetite with food that aren’t filling us up too much but rewarding enough for the time being.

Snacking on nuts and crackers is the worst thing a culinary expert could do at such times.

Luckily, there is a savior in our need in the Spanish cuisine for hot summer days that is able to reign our Ghrelin level, which is the body’s hormone way to tell the brain that we are hungry, but keep us ready for the big thing when it’s time.

Gazpacho comes from the hottest part of the Spanish peninsula. Andalusia where despite all air conditioning efforts of the developed world people still sleep in the middle of the day a couple of hours and have dinner at 10p.m. as a way of life.

Traditions that brought us this delicious tomato, cucumber and garlic cold soup that could be a perfect co-star of any summer party anywhere in the world. The stale bread is not as indispensable part of the dish, especially if we are making it gluten free, as the touch of vinegar that brings all the flavors together in cooling harmony.

Ingredients

2lb / 1kg Tomato
1 medium Italian green pepper
1 Cucumber
2 cloves Garlic
½ teaspoon Salt
2 oz / 50g Freshly baked bread like ciabatta (stale) (optional)
¼ cup / 50ml Extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoon Vinegar
1 cup / 250ml Water

How to make Gazpacho

Wash all the vegetables and get everything ready to go.
Cut the vegetables up into pieces to make the blending process easier. Optionally peel the tomatoes either by hand or blanching. Removing the peel will reduce the overall acidity of the finished dish. Pure the tomatoes with a blender then add the rest of the vegetables and salt.
Blend the vegetables with the tomato.
If desired add some sort of bread and pure that as well. This step is totally optional. The bread is meant to thicken the sauce thus if we skip adding the bread we may skip adding water to the mixture.
Don’t forget to add the olive oil, vinegar and if we use bread then a bit of water too.
Traditionally the gazpacho should be pressed through some sort of sieve to get rid of the seeds but if we are short on time or just don’t want to suffer it through then skip this step.
The finished gazpacho should be kept in a cool place uncovered for a day allowing some of the liquid to evaporate and the flavors to come together but lacking that sort of place the fridge would do just as well.
Serve it cooled down to fridge temperature and try to avoid serving it with ice cubes for Spaniards. ;D