White Gazpacho

[AlexP]

White Gazpacho

AlexP provided this at a Twin Cities (Heartland Forum) gathering; it is adaptation of a Penelope Casas recipe. It was a real winner. As Betts said, "Everyone should note that Alex"s recipe was heaven in a soup bowl - cold, pale, spicy and the grapes are the perfect fruity, acid contrast."

AlexP brought green grapes.

• 8 oz almonds (I blanched them for 2 minutes in boiling water and drained them)
  
• 8 oz of 1 day old bread without crust (some recipes ask for more bread than almonds. I went for a 50-50%, although to be honest I might have had less bread than 8 oz.)
  
• 4 cloves of garlic
  
• 12 T Tb of EVOO
  
• 3 tsp Kosher Salt
  
• 6 T Sherry Vinegar
  
• 7 c of water
  
• peeled seedless grapes
  

- I used a blender but a large food processor would be best I think.

- Soak the bread in cold water

- Blend the garlic, almonds, and salt in the food processor until they form a nice fine mixture.

- Squeeze the water and most moisture of the bread and add it in batches to the food processor. Keep blending until you have a good paste. In the blender, I had problems since I did not have liquid, so I added the olive oil and some water at this point.

- Add the olive oil and sherry vinegar and blend again.

- With the motor running, add the water in a thin stream. Before adding all the water, I would check for taste. You might not need all the water called above.

- Once you have the soup, transfer to a bowl and strained. I think this is important to achieve a nice texture. You will find plenty of almond mixture in the strainer, push hard with a spoon to get as much mixture as possible into the soup.

- Let cool in the fridge for a couple hours and adjust with vinegar, EVOO, and salt to taste.

- Serve with the grapes (Optional: bread croutons or salted almonds)

There is plenty of room to play around with the quantity of the ingredients. It would be more to the taste of the cook to change some ratios, but the ingredients and the technique are pretty much stated in the recipe.

Keywords: Hors d'oeuvre, Soup, Vegan, Easy

( RG1014 )