I promise to stop posting cold soup recipes soon, but never having lived a summer with air conditioning, they are a staple to my summer diet. My parents’ gazpacho was a chunky affair, and I’d become accustomed to eating gazpacho that was only slightly smoother and less spicy than salsa. I couldn’t believe how refined this recipe seemed, processed and then pushed through a fine sieve, and I felt I had to try it. Something about its consistency and its refinement reminds me more of a French recipe.

Though gazpacho is through and through a Spanish recipe, it was in France that I first thought about making gazpacho myself. Sure, my parents had been making it for years, but with its exotic name they might as well have invented it themselves. I’d never eaten it outside my own home until I went to work as a nanny for a French family in Burgundy. My host mother, Anna, had once worked as an au pair in Spain, where she’d learned to make gazpacho. She served it at a dinner party on one of my first nights with her family, and after I’d fed the children their spaghetti and ketchup (seriously, French kids - and college students - eat this), I was invited to attend. Onto our tiny, icy cold bowls we heaped onions, peppers, and hard boiled eggs, and though light fare, it was the perfect first course on a hot and humid summer night. In retrospect, maybe the evening was more magical than the soup, or maybe I was just relieved that it wasn’t yet another meal of shredded carrots with a creamy balsamic and Dijon mustard sauce (normal dinner fare in that household), but in poor French I gushed over the soup. 

Hard-boiled eggs aren’t a traditional garnish, but the French love putting eggs on things that don’t normally require them (like pizza), and gazpacho is one dish that really benefits from them. It’s a great way to work protein into an otherwise produce-dominated soup. 

Gazpacho (adapted from Saveur)

For soup:

• 1 5” to 6” piece of French baguette, crusts removed
• 2 small cucumbers, peeled, seeded and chopped
• 2 pounds tomatoes (the riper the better!), seeded and chopped
• 1 clove garlic, peeled and chopped
• 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
• 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• salt

Garnishes:

• hard-boiled eggs, chopped
• white onion, chopped
• yellow and green bell peppers, chopped

1. Soak the bread in water for 1/2 hour, then remove and squeeze out water with your hands. 

2. Combine all ingredients in the bowl of a large food processor and process until very smooth. Working in batches, pour soup through a very fine strainer, using a wooden spoon to push through. Discard leftovers.

3. Refrigerate for at least two hours prior to eating. Serve immediately with garnishes in chilled bowls or glasses, or set bowl inside a larger bowl filled with ice to keep cold. Serves 4.