Off-white gazpacho

Contributed by Preston Maring, MD


Off-white gazpacho

So I had delicious white gazpacho at one of the restaurants that makes round and irregularly shaped food into squares, etc. An internet search took me to SimplyRecipes.com and other sites with recipes for this dish. They all used white bread. As I only had some Vital Vittles 9 grain bread at home, my version of this soup was a different color. But the flavor was excellent.

Various recipes call for stale bread (mine was fresh), removing the crust (why?), or heating the stock to soak the bread then let it cool (takes too long). I just tried to make it easy and was proud of myself when I tasted the result.

Servings: 6

Ingredients

  • 2 cups whole grain bread, torn into little pieces
  • 2 cups vegetable stock
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
  • 1 cup slivered blanched almonds
  • 2 cups green seedless grapes, sliced in half
  • 2 cucumbers, chopped.
  • 2 small garlic cloves, chopped
  • 2 to 3 tablespoons sherry vinegar
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • Chives or scallions for garnish

Directions

  1. Add the bread pieces to the stock. 
  2. Add the almonds, garlic, and salt to a food processor. Pulse until the almonds are pulverized. 
  3. Add the soaked bread and stock. Pulse until slightly chunky. 
  4. Add the cucumbers and the grapes. Pulse some more. 
  5. Add 2 tablespoons vinegar for starters and then more to taste after you pulse some more. 
  6. With the motor running, drizzle in the olive oil. 
  7. Here’s the fun part. If the cucumbers you used were big, the gazpacho overwhelms the food processor and a fair amount runs down the side and into the cooling baffles in the processor motor housing. At this point, I just sighed and went for it blending the soup until it was creamy. 
  8. Chill it and serve. You will like this.