Tomatoes are everywhere right now and they are so good! So this is the best time of year to make a tomato gazpacho soup. Reading the title of this recipe quickly you may think that I’ve used cherry tomatoes – but that’s not the case. I used tomatoes and cherries – yes, sweet red cherries. But unless I told you there were cherries, you probably wouldn’t know. The cherries add very subtle sweet flavor to this tasty soup.
Gazpacho is a cold soup from the Andalusia region of Spain. Traditional gazpacho includes the addition of day-old bread (in this case dried out bread is a good thing) which is used to thicken the soup. I’ve made many variations of gazpacho but have never used any bread (even before I gave up eating wheat). But I thought I’d see what gazpacho was like with a thickener so I did a bit of research and found that almonds are often used in place of bread. While toasted blanched almonds will work just fine if you’re able to find Marcona almonds (already toasted and salted), I recommend using these. Once again, you don’t get an almond taste but it absolutely thickens the soup.
Most of the fresh ingredients came from the B&H Organic Produce stand at my local farmers market (Growing Roots’ Farmers Market) in Malvern, PA. I loved the not-so-perfect tomatoes (they were going to be puréed so they don’t have to look good, right?), the colorful Italian pepper and red onion that resembled a large shallot. Unfortunately our local cherries were gone, but I was able to find lovely juicy cherries from Canada at the grocery store.
Something else that I’d never tried before was letting the ingredients marinate at room temperature before puréeing them. This allows the flavors intermingle more. Once the soup is made you’ll need a few hours in the refrigerator for it to cool and also continue to develop its flavors.
This gazpacho is a great way to showcase the wonderful produce that summer has to offer before it goes away.
| Tomato-Cherry Gazpacho | Print |
- 2-1/2 pounds ripe tomatoes, cored and roughly chopped
- ½ pound sweet cherries, pitted and halved (~ 20 cherries)
- 1 small Italian frying pepper, stemmed, seeded and roughly chopped
- 1 cup (~ 5 ounces) salted Marcona almonds (see Notes)
- ½ medium red onion, roughly chopped
- 4 cloves roasted garlic or 1 clove fresh garlic (see Notes)
- ¼ cup flavorful extra-virgin olive oil
- ¼ cup sherry vinegar
- Fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
- Garnish: ½ cup of loosely packed basil, cut chiffonade style or torn
- In a large bowl, toss tomatoes, cherries, Italian pepper, almonds, red onion, garlic, vinegar, olive oil and a very generous pinch each of salt and pepper. Let gazpacho base stand at room temperature for 2 hours to marinate.
- Working in batches if needed, in a food processor, blender or Vitamix, purée the gazpacho base until very smooth, about 2 minutes.
- Transfer to another large bowl. Cover and refrigerate for at least 3 hours or overnight.
- Before serving, season gazpacho with salt, adding a few tablespoons of water if too thick.
- Ladle into bowls and top with a few pieces of basil.
- Keeps 2 to 3 days, refrigerated.
* If you have time, I recommend making roasted garlic. See Provençal Herb Roasted Garlic for a recipe. It’s okay if some herbs get into the soup or you can make it without any herbs.
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