Help improve my gazpacho, please!

[Anonymous]

New to cooking and just made an okay batch of gazpacho. It's a healthy but bland blend of cukes, tomatoes, peppers, celery, onions and cilantro. And one small can of Spicy V8. What can I do now to "brighten" it up? I love the zing of gazpacho in restaurants - how do I get that? Lime juice? Vinegar? Worchester? Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Jalepeno

[Anonymous]

sherry vinegar, salt and garlic.

I prefer Andalusian gazpacho, which is blended.

[Anonymous]

No spicy V8, no cilantro, no Worcestershire. It is gazpacho, not bloody mary.

I add a touch of jalapeno, a good amount of sherry vinegar, salt and a little garlic, and olive oil. Jose Andres' recipe is a good starting point, though he doesn't use the jalapeno and goes overboard on the olive oil.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No spicy V8, no cilantro, no Worcestershire. It is gazpacho, not bloody mary.

I add a touch of jalapeno, a good amount of sherry vinegar, salt and a little garlic, and olive oil. Jose Andres' recipe is a good starting point, though he doesn't use the jalapeno and goes overboard on the olive oil.

Agree. And it's spanish, not mexican.

This is my go to recipe, which we make whenever tomatoes are decent.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Classic-Andalusian-Gazpacho-106874

[Anonymous]

Yep - you are going to need a healthy dose of vinegar and perhaps a squeeze of lemon.

[Anonymous]

I use red wine vinegar and almost a whole large can of V8. The V8 also gives a good dose of salt, which brings out the tomato flavor. I do not put celery or cilantro in mine.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for all the tips so far - and for the link to the recipe! Like I said, I'm new to cooking! I didn't realize gazpacho was Spanish - I thought all countries had some version of cold seasonal veggie soup, so I was aiming for Mexican since I had lots of cilantro! Go figure!

[Anonymous]

In Spain years ago, discovered gazpacho, and there was lots of olive oil and some french bread blended in to thicken it

[Anonymous]

I love this one:
http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/cuisine/european/spanish/chilled-spanish-gazpacho.html

[Anonymous]

Sherry vinegar or bust! And maybe this seems obvious, but seasoning it well with a good-quality salt is key. Don't use table salt. Use a nice sea salt and add it bit by bit, tasting as you go, till the flavors pop. Also, day-old bread is essential as well to get the blend to emulsify. Use white French or Italian bread with the crusts removed, or any white bread really, just not sourdough which is too strongly flavored. It would make great croutons though!

[Anonymous]

I fell in love with the Tribeca Grill's gazpacho and their secret was canteloupe. I'm pretty sure you can find the receipe online if you google it.

[Anonymous]

Joy of Cooking has a good recipe.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No spicy V8, no cilantro, no Worcestershire. It is gazpacho, not bloody mary.

I add a touch of jalapeno, a good amount of sherry vinegar, salt and a little garlic, and olive oil. Jose Andres' recipe is a good starting point, though he doesn't use the jalapeno and goes overboard on the olive oil.

Agree. And it's spanish, not mexican.

This is my go to recipe, which we make whenever tomatoes are decent.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Classic-Andalusian-Gazpacho-106874

mmmm! I spent a summer in Valencia with a family that was of Andalusian ancestry and this was pretty much the recipe they used -- they made this as a drink before supper every night I was there, only they included peeled cucumbers and green peppers, definitely no cumin, and I don't recall the sugar but maybe I wasn't watching. The tomatoes though were VERY fresh from the garden each day, so maybe we didn't need the sugar.

The drink was always served over ice.

[Anonymous]

Really good sherry vinegar and exceptional olive oil.