Spanish-Style Gazpacho

The restaurant
Ecos Del Mundo — Mexico City

The dish
Gazpacho

The experience
On our last day in Mexico City, I was desperate for a vegetable-forward meal. In fact, I was craving gazpacho but I doubted I'd manage to satisfy that particular craving. Mostly out of curiosity, I peered at the menu of an organic restaurant, one block from the main plaza in Coyoacán. Lo and behold, gazpacho! I ordered one bowl then a second. The waiter thought this was a bit strange, but I didn't care. It was easily the best gazpacho I'd had outside of Spain.

Notes
The secret to good gazpacho: ripe tomatoes and high-quality ingredients. You can add honey if your tomatoes aren't ripe enough, but ideally you want to start with tomatoes that are truly ripe. The quality of the olive oil makes a big difference, so splurge if you can. I use California Olive Ranch EVOO, which I found on sale for $6.50.

I've made countless versions of gazpacho, tweaking the recipe a little each time. The recipe below draws on this Serious Eats technique, but I've changed the proportions and ingredients significantly.

Ingredients
3 pounds ripe tomatoes, cored and cut into chunks
1 sweet pepper (such as a cubanelle, Anaheim or Hungarian), cored, seeded and cut into chunks
1 cucumber, about 8 inches long, peeled, seeded and cut into chunks
1/2 small white or red onion, peeled and cut into chunks
1 clove garlic
2 teaspoons sherry or red wine vinegar
2 teaspoons salt
½ cup extra-virgin olive oil

Directions
Combine tomatoes, pepper, cucumber, onion, garlic and salt in a large bowl and toss to coat. Let sit at room temperature for 30 minutes.

Transfer vegetables to the freezer until vegetables are frozen, about 30 minutes.

Remove vegetables from freezer and allow to sit at room temperature until mostly thawed, about 30 minutes.

Blend vegetables at high speed until smooth, about 2 minutes. With the motor running, slowly add olive oil and vinegar. Strain soup through a fine mesh strainer.

Chill for at least 6 hours.

Taste before serving and add more salt or vinegar if needed. Drizzle each bowl with olive oil.