Gazpacho, a Chilled Vegetable Soup for Summer

Gazpacho is a cold Spanish tomato-based raw vegetable soup, originating in the southern region of Andalusia. Gazpacho is widely consumed throughout Spain, neighboring Portugal and parts of Latin America. It is mostly consumed during the summer months, due to its refreshing qualities.

Gazpacho has ancient roots. There are a number of theories of its origin, including as an Arab soup of bread, olive oil, water and garlic that arrived in Spain with the Moors, or via the Romans with the addition of vinegar.

Once in Spain it became a part of Andalusian cuisine, particularly Seville, using stale bread, garlic, olive oil, salt, and vinegar, similar to ajoblanco

Tomato was added to the recipe after in the 1700s. Although Cortez found tomatoes growing in Montezuma’s gardens in 1519, and it became part of the culinary bounty brought back to Spain by the 16th-century conquistadors, as part of the Nightshade family of plants it was deemed poisonous and relegated to decorative plant status. A famine in Italy 200 years later caused starving peasants to eat the tomatoes to no ill effect, and the tomato entered the European culinary tradition.

Gazpacho remained popular with field hands as a way to cool off during the summer and to use available ingredients such as fresh vegetables and stale bread.

There are many modern variations of gazpacho, often in different colors and omitting the tomatoes and bread in favor of avocados, cucumbers, parsley, watermelon, grapes, meat stock, seafood, and other ingredients. Gazpacho has become an almost generic term for chilled vegetable soup. Gazpacho may be served with ice cubes if it has not had enough time to chill before serving.

A completely different dish to traditional gazpacho is gazpacho manchego. As the name implies, it seems to have originated from the Spanish region of La Mancha, but it is also popular in other areas in the center and southwest of the country. Rather than a cold soup, it is a meat stew. The main ingredients are rabbit and flat bread, and may also include mushrooms.

A popular variation comes from the town of Rota in the province of Cadiz. During the times of drought there wasn’t enough water to make gazpacho. Arranque has the same ingredients as gazpacho only that it requires less water, making arranque into a gazpacho cream.