Not only the southern part of the Península cools itself down with chilled gazpacho during the summer months, I loved to savour it under the hot sun of the Alta Meseta, in Salamanca, where I spent my student days. It’s easy to prepare if you’ve got a mortar, a blender and plenty of field grown, sun riped vegetables:  tomato + cucumber + bell pepper + onion +garlic + white bread + chilled water, salt, olive oil and vinegar = traditional Spanish gazpacho.

There is a big variety of gazpachos, the green one, the white one, the Ajo Blanco, the Salmorejo – even the traditional red gazpacho is prepared differently depending on the region and personal taste. (Hmmm, I’ll never forget the mouth-watering Ajo Blanco my friend’s grandmother used to bring along in a small plastic milk can.)
For a basic recipe I recommend you always take tomatoes, cucumber and bell pepper, salt, vinegar and olive oil.  For the rest you may play around with garlic, onions, white bread or celery sticks…. Anyway, gazpacho is always hearty and satisfying and, in addition, it provides you with salt and vitamins when it’s sweating hot!

My quick gazpacho comes out of the blender and is prepared in a minute ( well, 5minutes..)

2 ripe, uncooked tomatoes
1/2 cucumber, unpeeled
1 spring onion
2 celery sticks
1 red bell pepper
1 glass of chilled water
2 tbs olive oil
2 tbs vinegar
salt and pepper to taste

Chop the vegetables and blend in a blender. Chill.

If you want to add bread and garlic, mash salt, garlic and bread in a mortar before blending with the vegetables. It’s worth the effort.  Enjoy!