Maria's Tomato Gazpacho
Maria's Sopa de GazpachoCasa Celeste, on the Gold Coast of Puerto Vallarta, was the beautiful seaside home we stayed in when I escorted two groups on cooking holidays in the area. Our cook, Maria, prepared her mild, tomato-rich gazpacho soup for dinner one evening. Everyone liked it, and this is her recipe.
Ingrediënten
Makes 4 servings
- 4 slices white bread cut into 1⁄2-inch cubes
- Vegetable Oil for frying the bread
- 4 cups canned tomato juice
- 1 green bell pepper washed, seeded, and finely chopped
- 1 medium cucumber peeled and finely chopped
- 2 large ripe tomatoes peeled and finely chopped
- ½ white onion finely chopped
- ½ teaspoon salt or to taste
- Freshly ground pepper to taste
- 1 ripe avocado Hass variety preferred
Instructies
- Preheat the oven to 400°.
- Put the bread cubes on a baking sheet and toast in the oven until dry and beginning to brown about 5 minutes.
- Remove from the oven.
- Heat the oil in a skillet until shimmering and fry the toast until crisp and brown.
- Drain on paper towels and put into a small condiment bowl to serve with the soup.
- Put half of the chopped green pepper, half of the cucumber and half of the tomatoes in a blender.
- Put the remaining chopped vegetables into separate small condiment bowls.
- Put all of the chopped onion in a small condiment bowl.
- Set the condiment bowls aside until you serve the soup.
- Add 1 cup of the tomato juice to the blender and purée the vegetables as smoothly as possible.
- Pour the purée into the bowl with the remaining tomato juice.
- Add salt and pepper.
- Cover and refrigerate at least 1 hour, or up to 6 hours.
- The soup is best served the day it's made.
- Shortly before serving, peel and dice the avocado and put it into a small condiment bowl.
- Arrange all the condiment bowls on the table for each person to add to the soup.
- Ladle the cold soup into individual bowls and serve.
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