Green Gazpacho Recipe

Gazpachos originate from Spain and the French love it so much, they drink it for apéritif. For those who are not familiar with this concept, apéritif usually involves an alcoholic drink to stimulate the appetite before a meal which is a great way to get your guests relaxed (and happy!) before sitting at the dining table.

In hot summer days though, especially in the South of France, the traditional tomato gazpacho is served as a fresh refreshment with olives along with Pastis, the anise-based liquor from the Provence region that French people simply call “Ricard”, which is the brand name.

The texture of the green gazpacho is more of a vegetable based soup so I do not recommend serving it for apéritif, but rather for a light dinner accompanied by fresh bread like baguette.

Let me also add that this gazpacho only took 20 minutes and was the best thing to eat after a long 12 hours return flight from Nice, as your body gets quite dehydrated when flying.

All you need is:

• 4 cucumbers and a half
• 4 oz. aragula
• 4 green peppers
• 2 small shallots
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 limes
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• a blender

1. Peel the cucumbers. Cut them in half in length. Remove the seeds with a small spoon.
2. Mix cucumbers in blender and set juice aside.
3. Trim into small pieces the aragula, green peppers and shallots and set all aside in a large bowl.
4. Pour cucumber juice over trimmed vegetables. Add the olive oil, lime juice and salt.
5. Blend the entire mix with hand blender.
6. Serve into plates and add aragula leaves for decoration and a drop of olive oil.

If you like your gazpacho extra fresh, I recommend leaving the vegetables in the fridge for a few hours or overnight. You can also substitute the shallots with garlic for more flavor.

Hope you get to enjoy it as much as I did.

What about you? Are you a big fan of gazpachos?

Drop me a note!