Gaspacho Gazpacho

There are very few occasions in life when I can be bothered to blanch tomatoes. But gazpacho is one of them. Actually I can't think of any others.

After a scorching day full of comic book shops and iced coffees with Naomi, the only thing we could think about making was gazpacho. Nigel Slater, as ever, came to the rescue. We just simplified his recipe for The Guardian, which you can read here. The most important thing for gazpacho is to give it time to cool down! I leave it in the freezer for ten minutes or so, and then add an ice cube if you still think it needs it!

Ingredients
Six tomatoes (Yes, we used ten- I suppose just allow 3 tomatoes per portion)
1 onion, diced
Half a cucumber, chopped small
2 cloves garlic, chopped
3 spring onions, chopped
2 tbsp sherry or red wine vinegar
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp caster sugar
Juice 1 lime

Boil the kettle and cut a small cross in each of the tomatoes. Add to a saucepan and heat with the boiling water until you can start to see the skin come off the tomatoes. Run them under cold water and peel off their skins, then chop and place back in the saucepan (off the heat).

Add the oil, onion, cucumber, spring onions and garlic. Using a hand blender or food processor, mix the soup until it's at your preferred consistency. 

Finally add the vinegar, any salt, pepper you think it needs and caster sugar. I also add lime juice to mine here. If you want to eat ASAP, then bung in the freezer for a few minutes and add a few ice cubes as we did- if you've got plenty of time, cover and sit in the fridge until needed.