Gazpacho sweats and sangria withdrawal

A staple Catalan diet (maybe) of sangria and gazpacho

Hey, I'll admit it, I wasn't holding out much hope for an easy vegan ride in Barcelona. Considering Spain ranks as one of the highest meat consuming countries per capita in the world, I figured it would be paprika crisps, watermelon and black coffee most meals, if my (admittedly brief) stays in Poland and Italy were anything to go by.

So you can only imagine the relief that began to seep in after a few days in Barcelona and at Primavera Sound. There's stuff vegans can eat here! People know what that word is! There's VEGANAISE!! By the time I left Spain I'd tried more vegan food than I had ever imagined I would and have basically never eaten better on holiday. Scotland was more difficult. Who am I kidding, central London is more difficult.

We stayed in the centre of Barcelona where things like soy milk, plain pasta sauces and a lot of gorgeous fruit are easy to come by. The Turkish shops sell falafel wraps until the small hours and a lot of the bars will bring you a selection of vegan tapas dishes if you ask extra nice.

Espinacas a la Catalana, or, the best spinach you've ever tasted

But even when we ventured into the mountains- an hour's train ride out of Barcelona, we were able to make up a huge vegan, gluten free picnic with some of the most delicious food I've ever tasted- a tray of Catalan spinach cooked with olive oil and pine nuts was so rich we had to pretty much roll back to the cable car and down into the valley.

But it was the vegan food stall at Primavera Sound that changed EVERYTHING. I ate vegan brownies whilst watching Deerhunter, a vegan thali at 3am before Hot Chip and veganaise with (not so hot) chips at pretty much every opportunity. I would probably have eaten my way through the entire stall if we'd stayed any longer.

¡Muchas Gracias Spain! 

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.