Today I want to talk about a classic refreshing soup. A soup that’s bursting full of Spanish goodness and ripe summery flavours. This is, of course, the classic gazpacho.

This is a fantastic dish to make at home and a great way to stretch cheap ingredients to their absolute limit. It’s essentially a cold salad soup but the recipe is fairly flexible and you can customise it to your own liking. This is definitely a dish to enjoy on a summers day. It’s a seasonal treat and works perfectly as a dinner party starter or as a light supper.

This is a rustic dish so it’s important to keep a little texture and not to blitz everything too finely. The taste improves over time so it needs a good few hours in the fridge to mellow and this really helps the flavours mesh. Once you’ve done this you’ll be on your way to gazpacho heaven!

Gazpacho is one of life’s simplest pleasures. It looks like a vibrant pink bouquet of pimientos and freshly chopped cucumber and will last in the fridge for five days. Enjoy it - your mouth will taste great for a week!

Ingredients (serves 8)

8 medium pimientos (4 x red and 4 x yellow), roughly chopped (I use pimientos instead of tomatoes as I find they’re much smoother)
1 large Spanish onion, roughly chopped

8 garlic cloves, crushed

½ cucumber, roughly chopped

¼ pint of the finest olive oil

¼ pint of the finest Sauvignon Blanc white wine vinegar

¼ pint of pouring yogurt
1 pint of water

1 lemon, juice only

1 lime, juice only

A sprinkle of your choice of spices – I like to use cardamom seeds, caraway seeds, celery salt, cumin and nutmeg

To serve

8 tbsp. mayonnaise
Chilled beetroot
A bunch of fresh basil leaves

Method

- Throw everything together in a big bowl, it will be very liquidly but don’t worry it’s meant to be.

- Pour everything into a blender and blitz together until everything is finely chopped but not too smooth.

- Add seasoning, mix and taste to check you’re happy with the seasoning.

- Cover and leave to marinate in the fridge overnight.

- Pour the soup into eight serving dishes; it should of naturally thickened overnight and have the consistency of thick pouring yogurt.

I like to garnish it with golf ball sized chunks of bread, peeled pieces of beetroot and basil leaves. Finally, I put a big scoop of mayonnaise in the middle and that creamy texture finishes it off perfectly.