Cooking with San Francisco Cooking School: White Gazpacho

Gazpacho is the ubiquitous soup of summer. Too many overripe tomatoes? Make gazpacho. Need lunch for days, but want to make it on Sunday? Make gazpacho. Too hot to cook? Make gazpacho.I’m a fan, don’t get me wrong, but a few years back I was turned on to white gazpacho, a dish with its humble origins in Spain like its red cousin, but it’s an entirely different ball game.Richer, more luxurious, and frankly just a bit more special, white gazpacho (or “ajo blanco”) is a perfect soup to kick off a meal. It’s at its best midsummer when produce is tastiest but most of the ingredients can be found year round, making it a soup you can rely on a lot more often than tomato-based gazpacho.It’s base is blanched almonds, white bread and cucumbers. My version, and many others, also in-corporates green grapes for a bit of sweetness as well as acidity. The almonds and bread add a lovely texture but if you want to keep things gluten free you can do without the bread.Like most gazpachos, this one tastes best when the flavors have had some time to marry. I try to make it a day before I want to serve it but, I’ll be honest, I’ve also done it a few hours before dinner and it’s still mighty good.[tasty-recipe id="1966"]