Glorious Gazpacho

Punchy tangy tingly gazpacho, full of vegetables to make you smile

Gazpacho (vegan)

Packs a punch, Gazpacho does. It doesn’t leave you in the dark as to its intentions. It wants to jump up and shout, and make you do the same. It’s a cold soup, made from raw vegetables, and you can feel it doing you good, as well as waking up your tastebuds. I used to make this quite often in the summer and take it to work in a chilled thermos flask for my lunch. Apart from the aroma of garlic making it obvious what I was eating, the little moans of pleasure from my desk caused much merriment in the office. Never mind, anything that makes you feel that good at work should be encouraged.

Do make it a day ahead so the flavours can meld, and serve it as chilled as you can, as that suits it. You can adjust the proportions to your own tastes – I quite like the sharp vinegary tang, but you can reduce the amount of vinegar if you want a gentler approach.

If you have fresh parsley to hand, it’s lovely to add some towards the end of the blend so you get it rather roughly chopped, but it’s not part of the classic recipe.

For a dinner party, you can serve little chopped vegetables as a topping and let everyone choose their own, but it’s not necessary for a family lunch.

Serves 4               Timings:  30 minutes and then at least 2 hours to chill

• 1 red pepper, de-seeded and chopped up
  
• ½ cucumber, chopped into chunks
  
• 1 medium red onion, peeled and chopped
  
• 1 bunch spring onions, cleaned and chopped
  
• 1 red chilli, de-seeded and chopped
  
• 2 cloves of garlic mashed up with salt
  
• 1 x 400g tin tomatoes in juice
  
• 100ml olive oil
  
• 50-80ml red wine vinegar
  
• Splash of Henderson’s Relish

Put the whole lot into the bowl of your blender and add about 200ml cold water, some salt and pepper. Blend until fairly smooth. Add the parsley at this time if using.

Blend again, and taste for seasoning and acidity. You can add a teaspoon of sugar to balance the acidity, a little more salt or a little more oil.

Blend and chill until needed.

The soup will keep at least 2 days in the fridge.