Maria's Sopa de GazpachoCasa Celeste, on the Gold Coast of Puerto Vallarta, was the beautiful seaside home we stayed in when I escorted two groups on cooking holidays in the area. Our cook, Maria, prepared her mild, tomato-rich gazpacho soup for dinner one evening. Everyone liked it, and this is her recipe.
Maria’s Tomato Gazpacho
Maria's Sopa de GazpachoCasa Celeste, on the Gold Coast of Puerto Vallarta, was the beautiful seaside home we stayed in when I escorted two groups on cooking holidays in the area. Our cook, Maria, prepared her mild, tomato-rich gazpacho soup for dinner one evening. Everyone liked it, and this is her recipe.
Ingredients
Makes 4 servings
- 4 slices white bread cut into 1⁄2-inch cubes
- Vegetable Oil for frying the bread
- 4 cups canned tomato juice
- 1 green bell pepper washed, seeded, and finely chopped
- 1 medium cucumber peeled and finely chopped
- 2 large ripe tomatoes peeled and finely chopped
- ½ white onion finely chopped
- ½ teaspoon salt or to taste
- Freshly ground pepper to taste
- 1 ripe avocado Hass variety preferred
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400°.
- Put the bread cubes on a baking sheet and toast in the oven until dry and beginning to brown about 5 minutes.
- Remove from the oven.
- Heat the oil in a skillet until shimmering and fry the toast until crisp and brown.
- Drain on paper towels and put into a small condiment bowl to serve with the soup.
- Put half of the chopped green pepper, half of the cucumber and half of the tomatoes in a blender.
- Put the remaining chopped vegetables into separate small condiment bowls.
- Put all of the chopped onion in a small condiment bowl.
- Set the condiment bowls aside until you serve the soup.
- Add 1 cup of the tomato juice to the blender and purée the vegetables as smoothly as possible.
- Pour the purée into the bowl with the remaining tomato juice.
- Add salt and pepper.
- Cover and refrigerate at least 1 hour, or up to 6 hours.
- The soup is best served the day it’s made.
- Shortly before serving, peel and dice the avocado and put it into a small condiment bowl.
- Arrange all the condiment bowls on the table for each person to add to the soup.
- Ladle the cold soup into individual bowls and serve.