Gazpacho

Preparing the gazpacho – 10 minutes

First, we're going to show you the easiest way to peel tomatoes. Fill a large pan with water and bring to a boil. Take all the tomatoes and slice a shallow x with a sharp knife on the bottom of the tomatoes.

Make sure you got a large bowl with cold water and ice cubes ready to cool down the tomatoes very quick. Place the tomatoes, a few at a time, in the boiling water. After 10 to 20 seconds, you'll see the peel at the x will get wider.

Immediately remove the tomatoes from the boiling water using the skimmer or slotted spoon and transfer them to the ice water.

This will stop them from getting cooked to long and therefore soft. Repeat for all the tomatoes.  after all the tomatoes have been in the boiling water, you can easily remove the skin starting at the x.  

Now remove all the seeds from the tomatoes and set the rest of the tomatoes aside. You don't have to throw the seeds away, you can create a delicious tomato sauce with the leftovers.

Remove the seeds from the red bell pepper and chop the red bell pepper in chunks. Peel the cucumber and also slice it into chunks. Peel the garlic cloves and shallot, slice them into chunks.  

Finishing the gazpacho – 20 minutes

Now it's time to blend the tomatoes, cucumber, red bell pepper, shallot and garlic until very smooth. Blend them all in batches. Depending on the blender, you want to blend it for a few minutes each time and make it smooth by adding parts of the red wine vinegar each time.

Remove the crust from the slices of bread and blend them with the rest of the ingredients. The bread will make it very smooth and thickens the gazpacho. You can soak the bread first, but to be honest, we skip this step and the result is the same.

Place all the blended ingredients in one large bowl or pan and mix well. Add the olive oil and season with pepper and salt. Place in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours, but the flavours will be really awesome when you refrigerate overnight.

If you would like to drink this cold soup instead of eating it with a spoon, simply add a little bit of water to make it less thick or skip the bread slices. For garnish, chop up some cucumber in very fine cubes (brunoise).