White Gazpacho is a cold refreshing Spanish soup made with almonds, sweet grapes and cool cucumbers to balance it all together.
But have you ever had white gazpacho? Now don't get me wrong, I will take a tomato gazpacho any day and this is another traditional gazpacho that is smooth, creamy and incredibly refreshing. Gazpacho blanco is made with almonds, sweet grapes, cool cucumbers and a bit of spice to balance it all together. The bright simple colors are beautiful and the flavors are perfectly layered.
White Gazpacho AKA Ajo Blanco
"Ajo Blano" is also what this white gazpacho is called meaning "white garlic" and is filled with delicious flavors of almonds, sweet grapes and traditional vinegar and bread. Both the bread and almonds help "thicken" the soup, but because I was craving something smooth, I moved the puree through a fine sieve, which holds all the nut pieces and grape skins. To garnish, I added bright lemon zest, thin slivers of green grape , fresh mint and a pinch of cayenne. The balance of the sweet, bright and spicy is out of this world.
A Few Gazpacho Making Tips
A few tips when making this white gazpacho, or any gazpacho really. Chill, chill chill. The colder the soup, the better and more refreshing it is! if you have the time, pour some of the soup in ice cube trays to freeze and add those to the soup before serving. You can also freeze grapes which are absolutely delicious and if you don't snack on them before they run out, add that to the soup mixture or as garnish to keep it cool.
More chilled inspiration
White Gazpacho with Almonds and Grapes
LittleFerraroKitchen.com
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2-3 ounces bread, such as baguette day old and roughly torn
- 1 cup almonds (blanched prefered but not necessary)
- 2 cups green grapes
- ¼ sweet onion roughly chopped
- 2 garlic cloves roughly chopped
- 1 yellow chile seeds removed and chopped
- 3 Persian cucumbers peeled and chopped
- 1 lemon zest and juice
- ½ teaspoon apple cider vinegar
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Olive oil
- 1 cup Water to help thin soup (amount may vary)
Garnish
- Mint leaves
- Pinch of cayenne
- Lemon zest
- Green grapes sliced thin
Instructions
- First, tear up the pieces of bread and soak them in a bowl with water for about 10 minutes.
- In a food processor, blend almonds until they as are as fine as possible. You can also chose to blanch the almonds before hand and remove the skins, but it's not necessary.
- Squeeze out the water from the bread and add that to the almonds in the food processor as well as the grapes, onion, garlic, chile, cucumbers, lemon zest and juice, salt and pepper, vinegar and a good drizzle of olive oil.
- Start with ½ cup of water and blend until everything is incorporated. Add more water as necessary (I used about 1 cup) and adjust seasoning. More salt? More vinegar, etc.
- When done, pour a ladle of soup through a fine mesh sieve over a large bowl and use a spatula or large spoon to push the soup through. Then take the solids and blend in the food processor again and continue to strain through a sieve, extracting as much liquid as possible.
- Cover bowl with plastic wrap and chill in fridge for at least 2 hours. Garnish with lemon zest, cayenne and grapes and serve.
Pat Lewis says
I'd love to know bread by quantity. Large, medium or small loaves of breads vary considerably in markets and bakeries.
Samantha Ferraro says
Hi Pat! Thank you for asking that and you are right, I should specify the amount of bread specifically and I'll update the recipes to reflect that. I just weighed a chunk of bread that I meant for the recipe and it is 2 ounces and about the size of my palm or about 3-4 inches in length and 2 inches wide. Hope that clears the confusion and please let me know if you have any other questions!
Amy Kim (@kimchi_mom) says
I love garlic and this soup sounds so good! Gorgeous photos...love the touches of green!
Alice says
talk about amazing!! this looks fantastic! Can't wait to give it a try, although I'm weary on adding bread... also can't wait to see your other gazpachos! how are you going to do a rainbow one??
Samantha says
Hi Alice...don't be weary of adding the bread. Its a traditional ingredients to help thicken the soup...but you dont have to if you really don't want to! I'm still thinking about the rainbow gazpacho..maybe layering it???
Bobbi's Kozy Kitchen says
That soup is stunning and sounds amazing!!
susan @ the wimpy vegetarian says
I love the flavors in this soup!! Particularly the use of the grapes. I imagine this would really brighten the soup.
Shaina says
Oh this sounds SO yummy! I've never had a white gazpacho before. What a great recipe for summer!
Serena | Serena Bakes Simply From Scratch says
I love that this is white! Such a gorgeous Gazpacho and the grapes are a great surprise!