When I was in Barcelona, I had some absolutely fabulous gazpacho. The best gazpacho I have ever tasted! We ate tapas in a cafe outside the Sagrada Familia.  The waiter brought the freshest gazpacho. I long to go back for more.

You can understand, then, that I have been on a quest to recapture that elixir — gazpacho.  I’ve read all the recipes online and chosen my ingredients.  Unfortunately each batch of gazpacho has tasted slightly different as I add different and more ingredients.

Today’s gazpacho was a light green in color. The last batch was very red but that was due to the 4 tomatoes.

To make it easy, everything goes into the blender. Today’s batch included:

• 3 tomatoes
• 2 celery stalks
• 1 avocado
• 2 cucumbers
• 1 green pepper
• cumin (dried)
• oregano (dried)
• cilantro (dried)
• fresh basil
• Persian salt (from Barcelona)
• 3 garlic cloves
• 2 very small pieces of fresh wheat bread
• sherry vinegar (1 tblsp)
• virgin olive oil (2 tblsp)
• lime juice
• 12 olives

So far, the best gazpacho I’ve made (batch #3) had fresh herbs — parsley, cilantro and basil.  But the grocery store doesn’t always have the fresh herbs.

I also think the flavor is enhanced if I cut the ingredients on my handmade pecan cutting board and use my hand carved cherry spoon for sampling!

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November update

https://vimeo.com/244277837