Gazpacho is a delightful cold soup that we eat widely in Spain during the summer months. Gazpacho is a fantastic zero waste dish as it is ideal for using over ripe tomatoes and stale bread and other over ripe veggies. The best thing is that is is super easy and quick to make and you can adapt it to your own taste. This is our compleat take on this Spanish classic.
Zero waste tips for making gazpacho
Make it complEAT! Compleating is about eating the entire ingredient and not wasting any edible parts. Gazpacho is ideal for compleating and it makes preparation time even shorter. Only the onion skin and garlic peel is best left out!
Buy you olive oil in glass bottle or tin can instead of plastic bottles if you can’t buy in bulk. In Spain it is not possible to buy unpackaged olive oil due to food safety standards. If you can buy unpackaged in your country all the better!
Insead of rinsing veggies in water try wiping them with a rough scrubbing cloth. This removes dirt, pesticides or wax from the skin in the case of supermarket produce. The Verdonce sustainable scrubbing cloth is ideal for this.
Gazpacho is best eaten straight away but it will keep for a couple of days in the fridge. Just place it in a mason jar or other airtight container.
Compleat zero waste gazpacho
Equipment
- Food processor
Ingredients
- 1 kg ripe or overripe tomatoes Don't peel
- 70 g cucumber Don't peel
- 50 g green pepper Seeds 'n all
- 1 clove garlic Peeled
- 40 g onion Peeled
- 150 g stale bread
- 50 g olive oil Extra virgin is best
- 30 g sherry vinegar
- 200 g water Adjust to suit
- 1 tsp salt Adjust to suit
Instructions
- Roughly chop all ingredients and place in food blender
- Blend everything together on half speed or power for 30 seconds
- Blend for a further 3 minutes at full speed or power
- Add water and blend for a further 2 minutes on 80% speed setting
- Cool in the fridge for a couple of hours.
Notes
- Gazpacho is best served chilled. If you’re in a hurry and don’t have time to wait for it to cool in the fridge just add a few ice cubes! Another tip is to use ingredients straight from the fridge and used chilled water.
- You can adjust the consistency by adding more or less bread to suit.
- Try your own twist. We love swapping the tomatoes for watermelon or adding strawberries for a sweeter summer’s delight.
Make it your own way
There are so many ways you can make gazpacho so have fun and experiment – the are no hard and fast rules. Just let us know how you get on in the comments below or take a shot of your creation and give us a holler on Instagram @verdonce_bags
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