Gazpacho is a cold soup, normally made with tomatoes, but strawberries are the star here. I serve it here as a first course with salad, but it can also be served in shot glasses as a palate cleanser or party canape.
The recipe is from star Portuguese chef Henrique Sá Pessoa, who describes his style of cooking as ‘simple with an element of surprise’. That’s definitely the case with this soup: familiar ingredients are combined in such a way that there’s an air of mystery about this dish. I’ll explain more in the video!
Serves: 6-8
Time: 5 minutes
Ingredients
Strawberry Gazpacho
- 250 grams strawberries, hulled
- 30 grams onion, peeled
- 90 grams red capsicum
- 90 grams cucumber, peeled and seeds scraped away
- 1 garlic clove, peeled
- 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
- 40 grams olive oil
- sugar, to taste
- 10 ice cubes
- salt flakes and black pepper, to taste
Tomato, Basil and Goat’s Cheese Salad
- 10 red cherry tomatoes
- 10 yellow cherry tomatoes
- salt flakes and black pepper, to taste
- 20 grams olive oil
- 6 basil leaves
- 100 grams chèvre (fresh goat’s cheese)
Method
Gazpacho
1. Place strawberries, onion, red capsicum, cucumber, garlic, red wine vinegar and olive oil into mixing bowl. Blitz for 1 min/speed 10 in a Thermomix or until smooth in a blender. (As you’ll see in the video, I add the ice and seasoning now too and blend the whole lot for 45 seconds. It’s up to you if you go my way or the cheffy way as per this recipe.)
2. Taste for sweetness and add a little sugar, if desired, along with the ice cubes, salt flakes and black pepper. Blend for another 1 min/speed 10 in a Thermomix or until smooth in a blender. Serve straight away or transfer to a bowl and refrigerate for 1 hour before serving.
Tomato, Basil and Goat’s Cheese Salad
3. Cut the red and yellow cherry tomatoes in half and place in a bowl. Toss with salt flakes, black pepper and olive oil. Finely slice the basil leaves (or just tear them) and gently mix through. Place a small amount of tomato salad on each plate and top with thin slices of the chèvre.
Serve the chilled gazpacho alongside the salad.
Tips
- The recipe volume can easily be doubled. It can be made in advance and kept in the fridge. Re-emulsify before serving by blitzing in the Thermomix with ice cubes.
- Use feta instead of goat’s cheese.
I always serve this soup at Christmas time – it’s such an easy, lively way to start a meal. On any occasion, it makes a great starter, followed by Beef Rotolo, or my favourite version of Cauliflower Rice for a vegetarian menu.
For a completely unique twist on this Spanish classic, check out Eyal Shani’s Gazpacho recipe.
More about this video
This dish appears in my book In the Mix 2: More Great Thermomix Recipes and I made it in all my cooking classes to support the launch of the book. Because the soup blends noisily for 45 seconds I came up with the idea of ‘racing the soup’ while I made the accompanying salad. At least my audience had something to look at while the Thermo-noise made it impossible to keep chatting!
