This chilled soup is the epitome of summer. It’s ice cold, silky smooth, bright yellow with a small kick and is a super easy recipe too! I have made another traditional gazpacho which has different sweet tomatoes and peppers, but I was really eager to make something golden and gorgeous.
The first gazpacho soup I ever had was at the Four Seasons in Hualalai on the Big Island. It was right before Joe and I moved to Cali and we took a stop at his old stomping grounds as one of our last hoorah’s before moving away. Joe was telling me about their amazing tomato soup, and of course I ahd to try it. This restaurant was owned by Alan Wong, one of Hawaii’s…and really, the world’s best chefs! I wish I had a picture of this tomato soup, it was so clever and so flavorful for a simple chilled soup. The waiter first serves you the bowl without soup in it, but on the bottom of the bowl are small scoops of homemade tomato sorbet. Then the waiter pours to colored soups in my bowl, one red and one yellow and then with the slightest stir, makes a ying-yang in the bowl. It was the most beautiful presented and “ono” soup I have ever had.
This gazpacho recipe has the same technique and mostly the same ingredients as my previous one. The secret ingredient….bread! Bread acts as a thickener so a watery soup doesn’t happen. But don’t worry, you won’t be able to taste any bread or yeast in the soup. My only tip is to use seasonal and sweet tomatoes. The sweeter and fresher your ingredients are, the better your soup will be.
- 2 lbs yellow tomatoes
- 2 Persian cucumbers peeled and chopped
- 1/4 red onion chopped
- 1 large yellow bell pepper
- 1-2 garlic cloves
- 1 small jalapeno or other hot pepper chopped and seeded (optional)
- 1/2 loaf Italian or French bread day-old preferred
- Few dashes of red-wine vinegar
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Olive oil
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In a medium sized bowl, roughly tear up your bread and add enough water to soak all the bread. Allow bread to sit for about 20 minutes.
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After about 20 minutes, squeeze the excess water out of the bread. Add all the chopped vegetables, garlic and olive oil to the bread bowl and toss together to combine, making sure everything is evenly coated with olive oil. Season with salt and pepper.Allow to sit for another 20 minutes so the flavors blend.
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In a food processor or blender, blend together the vegetable mixture and blend until pureed. Add a few dashes of red-wine vinegar. At this point, taste for seasoning or if you would like to add more olive oil.
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Pour the tomato soup through a fine mesh strainer pushing down on the pulp to get as much liquid as possible.
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Pour in soup bowls and garnish with extra tomato, peppers, onion or parsley.
Ah ! I want this !! So yumm and refreshing. Looks lovely ! Making this when I get yellow tomatoes 🙂 !
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My baby and I just ate a bunch of little yellow tomatoes with dinner. They’re so delicious. Funny, the only non yellow ingredient is red wine vinegar. I also like to hard boil an egg and crumble it on top of my gazpacho, and the egg will match the yellow one perfectly 🙂
The egg is such a great idea! I am definitely adding that next time 🙂