Meatless Monday: Gazpacho

It's been so hot here than anything we can eat that doesn't require cooking is a winner.

So here is a probably-not-that-authentic version of gazpacho.

750 grams of the best tomatoes you can find

Half a long cucumber

Half a red onion

Half a big red capcisum

Two slices of stale bread, soaked in cold water for 20 minutes

2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar

150ml of olive oil

Coriander

Mint

Salt, pepper

1. Score crosses in the tomatoes, then cover them in boiling water for a few minutes, remove skins and roughly chop.

2. Roughly chop all the other vegies.

3. Blitz everything in a food processor/blender.

 4. You will wind up with a very unattractive looking mush that does not appear at all soup-like. Strain it through a sieve, pushing down on it to get all the juice out.

5. Finely chop coriander, mint and extra cucumber to use as garnish.

6. Refrigerate for several hours and serve cold.

If I was doing this again I would use a quarter of an onion rather than half as I don't much like strongly onion flavoured foods. Some recipes I looked at used a few cloves of garlic rather than onion wihch might also improve things. I made this after E had gone to bed one night, thinking it would be a quick meal, but the the straining took a lot longer than I expected and rather than waiting for it to chill in the fridge we went with a few bogan ice cubes in each bowl. And so much for a meal that didn't require cooking; we wound up eating a few bowls of this as first course followed up by a healthy main of oven chips as the soup isn't really substantial enough to count as dinner on its own. That being said, it tastes fantastic and is worth the effort.

Linking up with the Veggie Mama's Meatless Mondays.