This week’s Cook the Book Fridays recipe from David Lebovitz’ My Paris Kitchen was the perfect dish to celebrate the end of summer tomato bounty. This is quick gazpacho made with tomatoes, peppers, red onion, cucumber and garlic with some Piment d’Espelette, a dash of red wine vinegar and some vodka (to make the soup taste colder) that comes together very quickly so it’s perfect to make ahead of time and leave chilling in the fridge.
I was working with tiny heirloom tomatoes so I skipped the step of removing the skins because my tomatoes were so small and the skins so thin and I also didn’t add the piece of bread soaked in water to the tomato pulp when I blitzed it in the food processor (the tomatoes were ripe but not very juicy so I felt it would take away too much of the “soup” part of the equation to have something soaking up what little liquid there was). Like David, I like my gazpacho more like a salad than a purée so these modifications worked well. Oh and did I mention I only made enough of this for ONE person?
The soup is served with toast that’s been rubbed with garlic then topped with goat’s cheese mixed with some fresh herbs. The perfect weekend lunch. I’d definitely make this again for a crowd on a hot summer day.
Get the recipe for David Lebovitz’ gazpacho with herbed goat cheese toasts on p 121 of My Paris Kitchen.
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We loved this too! The idea of ¨cold soup¨sounds awful but it is just wonderful! Great photos too!
See I don’t think “cold soup” sounds awful at all….
This was a really good gazpacho, and the goat cheese toasts were so delicious. I would definitely
make this again, especially when overrun with fresh tomatoes.
Definitely a good one to make with a glut of tomatoes!
Was really so good. And came together so quickly! I also didn’t use the bread… I was using less ripe tomatoes so they were only mildly juicy. The toasts were amazing too… i could have eaten those all day!
Yes, loved how quickly this came together!
You’ve shown us how a gazpacho that can be made into more like a salad, or more like a soup depending on what we want and how we want it.
Well I think David showed us that actually 😉
No, my Gazpacho didn’t have much liquid either but I didn’t even think about the bread soaking it up. I wonder why David added it. I liked this recipe but will leave out the bread next time.
Well to be honest I didn’t really want to use like 1/4 of a slice of bread in there you know – I only made a tiny amount. I’M GUESSING it would have soaked up the liquid but maybe not? I will try with bread when I make a large batch.
Your minification skills continue to impress! I think your chunky version looks really good, even if the tomatoes were a little less juicy than you’d hoped. I thought this went so well with the goat cheese toasts.
Ah you know I will minify ALL THE THINGS, right? And yes, I very much prefer my gazpacho chunky so it doesn’t taste like tomato juice (as it often does when it’d not done properly).
That looks like the perfect summer lunch!
Pretty much!
I like how chunky your soup looks, easier to eat. I like the idea of cherry tomatoes, it was a little work with the larger tomatoes. Nice thought for next time. I did add the bread, but would have liked to omit it as we are staying away from bread. I am glad to hear someone else did.
Oh this is definitely do-able without the bread!
Your version is the most unique one among the array the rest of us did, but I am sure David would approve!
Too bad we didn’t make this one until the end of the tomato season. Delicious. I will make the cheese spread all year round though, and look forward to next summer to make this again.
That cheese spread is a great one to have up your sleeve, for sure!