Gazpacho (Chilled Vegetable Soup)

If you look outside our windows you’d never believe you were one stop away from Canal street in Manhattan. There are so many tall trees and flowery bushes, it’s hard to see our neighbors’ backyards and houses. This makes our little apartment feel very private, as if we were on a vacation in a jungle somewhere in South America. Having a relaxing breakfast of coffee (many cups), yogurt and berries as I go through my list of ‘to do’ things for the day is a routine I’ve grown to love. I’ll look at cookbooks, find inspiration in the food section of the NY Times and begin concocting a menu to serve at dinner time.

When the weather is sunny and warm, my mind goes straight to gazpacho. One of my favorite gazpachos is served at Le Pain Quotidien and comes with bread and avocado (which is optional). I’ll often have lunch there with a friend and get a big bowl of it with a mint lemonade. Gazpacho makes me feel re-energized and cleansed. I can almost hear my body thanking me for feeding it something so good and healthy.

The recipe for gazpacho is very simple, very easy, very quick and impossible to ruin. You need approximately zero cooking skills and only a blender to make this chilled vegetable soup. The ingredients are common (tomatoes, cucumber, onions, bell peppers) and the seasoning minimal (olive oil, red wine vinegar, salt, pepper).

Vinegar is what adds a real punch to this soup, along with tabasco if you’re looking for some heat. I wanted to recreate Le Pain’s gazpacho at home so I served it with avocados (I’ll try a dollop of guacamole next time) and a side of baguette. My husband and I ate the entire batch in one sitting.

We felt so healthy and good about ourselves! Then I remembered we had ice cream sandwiches from Bierkraft I’d been dying to eat. That ended our proud “gosh we’re so healthy!” moment of zen abruptly. In hindsight, these sandwiches ended a perfect evening of watching back to back to back new Arrested Development episodes on Netflix. Couch potato happiness.

Did you like this Gazpacho Recipe? Are there changes you made that you would like to share?

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