So vibrant, bold, refreshing and peppery, this is one of the simplest soups to make but it’s important to season it properly. Keep checking the taste until it’s powerful. The rose-petal ice cubes will take your gazpacho to the next level and really impress your guests. They are the simplest things to make but they just look so beautiful and they add a great floral note. The gazpacho is best served straight-out-of-the-fridge cold, so make it at least an hour before serving.
Serves 4
Ingredients
4 handfuls of spinach, washed
3 garlic cloves
1 cucumber, deseeded and chopped
1/2 green chilli, deseeded
Handful of fresh mint
Handful of fresh parsley
Handful of fresh basil
1
Over-ripe avocado, peeled and de-stoned
5 spring onions
5tbsp coconut yogurt
2tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2tbsp white wine vinegar
Approximately 1 litre (4 cups) filtered water
Pinch salt and pepper
A little lemon juice, optional
To serve
Dried rose petals
Cherry tomatoes
Sugar snap peas
Watercress
Avocado roses (if you’re up to the challenge of making them)
Method
First up, ahead of making the soup, make the spectacular rose-petal ice cubes. Fill an ice-cube tray up with water and drop 3–4 edible rose petals into each cube. Place in the freezer.
Put all the soup ingredients, except the water and seasoning, in a blender – you will more than likely have to do this in stages as not everything will fit into the blender in its solid form.
Once everything is in the blender and half blended, pour the water in. Keep adding the water and blending until you’ve reached a smooth, soupy consistency. The key with gazpacho is to make sure the soup is super-smooth. There should be no bits, so if your blender isn’t very powerful and doesn’t completely blend the soup, just pass it through a sieve.
Pour into a container and check the seasoning. This is really crucial: be generous with the salt and pepper as you want to really bring out the flavours. Add lemon juice instead of additional salt if you prefer. This will also make the flavours pop.
Chill the soup in the fridge until you’re ready to serve; it’s as easy as that. To serve, pour the soup into your serving bowls. Top with 3 rose petal ice cubes per person, a few cherry tomatoes and sugar snap peas, some watercress and an avocado rose. To find out how to make an avocado rose, check out Gaz’s YouTube video.
Fancy more vegan recipes? Check out Avant-Garde Vegan by Gaz Oakley (Quadrille, £20.00) Photography: Simon Smith.
