Cucumber Avocado Gazpacho

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Best described as a refreshing bowl of liquid summer, this chilled cucumber-avocado gazpacho is a form of gazpacho that escapes the traditional sense in the best ways.

With bursts of fresh cucumber, cilantro and red onion, complemented by the heat of fresh jalapeño and tabasco, and smoothed out with velvety avocado and sour cream, this soup may quickly become one of your favorite treats on a hot summer day!

It's my personal favorite chilled soup and I'm so excited we're sharing it with you.

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What is gazpacho?

While this soup is by no means what people would view as a traditional Spanish gazpacho, it does possess some of gazpacho’s most adorned qualities. The soup is a mixture of vegetables that are seasoned and pureed into a refreshing soup, intended to be enjoyed on a hot day.

Originating in Spain, traditional gazpacho usually consists of tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, oil, vinegar and leftover bread. The bread was added to give the soup substance and to provide those eating, with something to stick onto their ribs. The soup was traditionally made using a mortar and pestle, where the ingredients were pulverized into a smooth liquid. Luckily, we have a blender that does all the work for us!

While tomatoes are usually synonymous with gazpacho, there were actually many varieties of gazpacho that were prominent throughout Spain and Portugal. The “classification”of gazpacho was basically done through color. Because of the fact that gazpachos were being enjoyed in Spain prior to the arrival of tomatoes in Europe (via Columbus and other Spanish explorers), it was common to see many different colored gazpachos. Some were white, due to the addition of bread and almonds, some were green, due to the addition of vegetables and leafy greens, and some were even yellow, from the addition of dried fruits and oils. Obviously, this cucumber-avocado gazpacho falls into the category of a green gazpacho.

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Ingredients for cucumber avocado gazpacho

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Cucumber Avocado Gazpacho tastes so refreshing because it's made up of mostly veggies. We especially love visiting our local farms and getting most of these ingredients while in season. Here's what you need:

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• Cucumber & Avocado: These are the two ingredients that provide the backbone of the soup and that establish the foundation for the refreshing soup. The cucumber, when pureed, is thin with a water-like texture and provides an almost sweet flavor when using perfectly ripened, garden cucumbers. The avocado provides body and texture to the cucumber.
• Red Onion: Red onion is added to bring a sharp “bite” to the soup and to provide a crisp pungent flavor that helps cut through some of the richness of the soup.
• Sour Cream: The sour cream is added to help provide a smooth and creamy texture and mouth-feel that amplifies that of the avocado and also brings an aged “tang” and “funk” to the soup. If you find that the soup is too spicy for your liking, feel free to add a bit more sour cream to neutralize the heat.
• Tabasco and Jalapeno: These two ingredients bring the heat to the party! The jalapeno has a quick, fresh heat that comes on quickly and lingers while the tabasco has a more mellow and acidic heat. Both forms of heat/spice are essential. Plus, when something is spicy, it causes you to sweat, which will ultimately cool you down quicker, so feel free to bring the heat on a hot summer day.
• Lime & Red Wine Vinegar: These two ingredients are intended to provide acidity that helps balance out the creamy-rich texture. This will help prevent you from feeling like you're eating a big bowl of one of those traditional French soups enriched with pounds of cream and butter.
• Cilantro: We add cilantro to reinforce that fresh flavor. To us, nothing says freshness like the presence of fresh herbs. If you do not have cilantro, or you are one of those folks who believe cilantro tastes like soap, feel free to replace it with parsley, mint, or basil.
• Olive Oil: The olive oil helps greatly in the texture and mouthfeel of the soup and helps in leaving your palate nice and clean after each spoonful. It also provides the soup with a nice, earthy and bitter flavor.
• Water: The water is present to simply thin out the soup to the point where you can puree it. While you can use a juice or stock, we prefer water because it does not combat any of the other flavors and allows some of the more delicate flavors to remain present.

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Tips on making cucumber avocado gazpacho

Not only is this one of the best chilled soups you'll ever have, but it's also extremely easy to make. Essentially, you are simply:

1. Cutting up your vegetables and herbs,
2. Adding them into a bowl with a bunch of seasonings and oils,
3. Pureeing it all together,
4. Adjusting the consistency and seasoning,
5. Chilling it down,
6. And enjoying!

To perfect this cucumber avocado gazpacho we just have two easy tips for you:

• Adjust to your liking: To really master this recipe, make sure you read over why we are adding each ingredient that we are choosing to add and know the affects each ingredient has on the soup's flavor. Each time you make this soup, the ingredients may vary in flavor. The only way to produce a consistent soup is to remember how you like it to taste and to know how to get it there each time.
• Adding the right amount of water: Don’t add all the water just because it is listed in the ingredients. You only want to add enough to get the soup to puree in the blender and to be thin enough to enjoy. Each cucumber is different in terms of water content so the amount of water needed each time may be different each time.

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We hope you enjoy this incredibly refreshing, summer in a dish treat!

Cheers and eat well!