Gazpacho, whoa whoa whoa whoa.

I needed a stick blender for this one. As the title implies, it’s Gazpacho. I used what I thought was a more traditional selection of ingredients, only to find that spaghetti sauce in my family, every family in Spain has a different opinion on what’s truly Gazpacho. Mine has: tomatoes (juice, diced, and puree), a cucumber, a red bell pepper, half an onion, olive oil, red wine vinegar, lemon juice, Tapatio, Worcester Sauce, salt and pepper.

I’ve seen variations on the amounts of each. Also seen it with olive oil. I’ve been told it’s a beverage not a soup. I’ve been told it’s a soup, not a beverage. I’ve seen it with Serrano ham and a boiled egg. I’ve seen it a variety of ways. All seem to be “traditional” which leads me to my statement above about my family and spaghetti sauce.

Anyway, it’s a cold soup (or beverage) of raw vegetables. The key here is raw. Since all of the vegetables are raw, it gives a very cool and refreshing feeling. And each vegetable while working together on the overall taste, aren’t melded into one like if you’d cooked it. So you can taste notes of the cucumber and tomatoes, and even the onion.

With the stick blender I just bought (with a gift card), the texture is also there. It’s somewhat smooth, with a bit of coarse, and occasionally you get tiny onion or cucumber piece, or a chunk of a tomato to munch on. I think next time I’ll add the whole onion just to punch up that flavor a little bit. It also adds a nice texture.