Spanish Recipes

Gazpacho orginates from Andalucia and is a cold Spanish tomato-based soup, perfect for those hot sunny days.  It can be drank from a cup or eaten with a spoon from a bowl.  Personally, I prefer to have it as a drink.  There are dozens of different recipes for Gazpacho.  This one seems to be one of the better ones.

Ingredients
1 kg ripe plum tomatoes
Half a large cucumber or one small one, peeled
Two green peppers, of the long, pointy variety (if you can get hold of them)
Three cloves of garlic (or to taste – remember this is a garlicky dish!)
1/4 l olive oil
Some slightly stale bread (from your local baker, not factory-produced supermarket stuff – don't the freshness factor!)
Half a small onion (optional)
Juice of half a lemon (optional)
Salt, pepper
Water (to taste)
Ice cubes (to serve)

Directions
1. Blanch the tomatoes, then remove the skin and seeds (use your thumb)
2. Chop the tomatoes, peeled cucumber, green pepper, garlic and onion (if using)
3. Put all the vegetables (and the bread, if using) with the oil, vinegar, salt and pepper into a blender.
4. Blend. When you think it is done, blend some more. It is best to start on a slow setting and speed up as it starts to get broken down.
5. Add the water. Blend some more again.
6. The gazpacho should be very runny but it should have a strong pinky-orange colour. Add more water, oil or vinegar until you think the balance is right, being careful not to make it too vinegary or too watery. This is all personal taste - not until you've tried the real thing will you know how it should be.
7. When it is ready, put in the fridge. The gazpacho needs to be very cold. If you are in a hurry, add ice cubes (but remember that this will dilute the gazpacho even further).
8. When dishing out, add more ice cubes. Serve with fresh bread for dunking.

Recipe from about.com