chilled tomato soup

i'm not a gazpacho, not quite a salmorejo

I have been getting requests for a What To Cook gazpacho for years now, and I honestly have no idea what took me so long to get here. But when I returned home on Wednesday afternoon after ten days on the road to a blistering hot Carmel Valley day and a backyard garden full of tomatoes, I knew it was finally time!

We love gazpacho in North Carolina, where I’m from, and growing up there was always a pitcher full of it in the refrigerator all summer long. Make it once, eat it all week long, in the depths of hot and humid August when it’s too hot to turn on the oven.

But then I studied abroad in Spain and discovered salmorejo, gazpacho’s Spanish cousin. The major difference? You blend BREAD right into the soup. Gazpacho can be a bit watery, but salmorejo has a thick, hearty texture. Salmorejo is also often garnished with chopped hardboiled eggs and/or some sort of ham product. I never loved the hardboiled egg on top, but I do love the protein boost, so I added a big scoop of Greek yogurt for protein. I do love the ham product on top, so I added some extremely crispy bacon on top for crunch and flavor. This is optional (of course)!

Salmorejo is made with tomatoes only, but I like to add a red bell pepper for the crisp, vegetal flavor and of course for mood boosting vitamin C, minerals and antioxidants.

So this soup is somewhere in the middle: not quite gazpacho, not quite salmorejo, hence the name chilled tomato soup. It is a delight, and I hope you make yourself a batch and sip on it all week long.

In ridiculously exciting news, What To Cook When You Don’t Feel Like Cooking is a New York Times Bestseller. Thank you to all of you, my loyal What To Cook crew, for making this happen. I’m honestly floored.

If you haven’t ordered a copy yet, here are all the places where you can find the book (signed from B&N, signed from Indies, on Amazon, etc.). And you can order personalized (“happy birthday, sarah! here’s what to cook when you don’t feel like cooking! love, caro”) copies from my local bookstore, Olivia & Daisy.

If you’ve already ordered a copy and are loving it (!!) and want to see me crush The Book of Bill in week 2, feel free to order copies for everyone you know for Christmas/Hanukah/their birthdays this year. I’m kidding, I’m totally not feeling competitive!!!

PS my book tour isn’t over!!! Costa Mesa, San Diego, Charleston, Atlanta, Birmingham, Dallas, Austin, Houston, Palo Alto and Monterey — I’m comin’ for ya and I cannot wait!

Have you already been to a tour stop? I am having so much fun getting to hang out with y’all that it’s honestly not even fair to call this a job!!!! Which tour stop did you come to?!

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chilled tomato soup

Serves 4

Cook time: 5 minutes

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