This simple and refreshing soup, with its roots deep in Andalusia Spain, is a perfect summer time meal. It’s light, yet full of deep flavors from our own special spice blend, Picasso’s Palate. Pair with Charred toast, or a blackberry and orange salsa crostini for a fun lunch in the sun ! Serves 4 to 6.
Equipment Needed:
Knife, Cutting Board, Food Processor or high-powered blender (preferred)
For the Soup
- 4/6 Medium to Large tomatoes
- 2Bell Peppers (I prefer red/yellow or orange, green can be bitter)
- 1 Small Red Onion
- 2 Garlic Cloves or (if you’re like me, 3!)
- 3 TBSP of Coconut or Olive Oil
- 3 TBSP of fresh squeezed orange juice
- 3 to 4 TBSP of Olive Oil
- 3 to 4 TBSP of Sherry Vinegar
- 1 TBSP of The Fig & The Knife’s Picasso’s Palate Premium Spice Blend (from F&K)
- 1 Cup of day old hearty bread. (not sliced sandwich bread, but a baguette or the like)
For the Garnish
- ¼ cup of Cherry/Grape Tomato (if you can find yellow or heirloom even better!)
- ¼ cup of Zucchini or Cucumber
- Sprigs of Microgreens like Cilantro, Onion or Pea shoot
- Reserve of Oil/Sherry and Picasso’s oil infusion (see directions)
Time for Soup. . . Let’s start with the Picasso’s Palate Infused Oil & Vinegar.
- In a small bowl whisk together, 3 TBSP of Extra Virgin Olive Oil, 3 TBSP of Sherry Vinegar, and 1 TBSP Picasso’s Palate Artisanal Spice Blend, set aside.
You can also double this batch, to have some left over for bread, just more flavor!
For the Soup. . .
- Pull out your knife, cutting board and food processor or blender and get ready to start tossing in ingredients. No need to worry about your knife skills here, the blender will destroy your efforts.
SIDE NOTE/TIP:Traditionally, hand processing or low powered blenders would not pulverize the tomato skin, leaving you with small tough bits in your gazpacho. Since this soup should be smooth you would have to blanch. Now days, we have blenders with almost as much horsepower as a motorcycle. If you’re the proud owner of one of these beasts you can skip the blanching step since the skin will get liquefied! If your blender is not a beast, solve this culinary speed bump by blanching your tomatoes. Simply set up a boiling a pot of water. Once rolling, drop in your tomatoes for 30 to 60 seconds. Remove tomatoes from hot water and dunk into an ice bath. Once cooled, the skins will peel right off and you can set those aside to compost, dry or toss. Then take your blanched tomatoes and toss into your blender. Moving along. ..
- Peel and toss the garlicand onioninto the blender and let it break down, as small as you can.
- Next, quarter the tomatoand pepperand toss in to blender, along with orange juiceand turn on. . .
- Pop open the top and drizzle in some oil of choice until all blended.
- Once blended, add in ½ of the Oil Infusion you made earlier and the day old bread and process until smooth. Be sure to cut off the crusts, and just use the interior of the bread.
- Pour the soup into a refrigerator safe bowl, cover and chill for at least 6/8 hours. The longer the better, if you can do 12 hours or 24 it will really allow for the flavors to come through. If you don’t have that kind of time. Put into a metal bowl and pop in freezer to blast chill. We’ll push some flavors through with the Picasso’s Palate Infused Oil & Vinegar, so make extra!!
To Serve & Garnish
- Chop Zucchini & tomatoes into small bite size pieces and mix together in a bowl. Set Aside. (If you prefer, you can swap zucchini for cucumber, just remove sides, or your soup will get watery)
- Ladle Soup into individual bowls and drizzle garnish on top of soup, place a few sprigs of microgreens, then drizzle the other ½ of the Picasso’s Palate infused Oil & Vinegar on top of soup as shown in photos.
I recommend charring some rustic bread, and brushing with olive oil for dunking in the soup, as shown in the photos. Or simply add extra garnish into the soup to give it more texture and enjoy!! So good!
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