How to make Gazpacho (as seen on TV)

To help promote the upcoming Paella Festival in Valencia pop-up dinner, I decided to demo how to make Gazpacho on WCIA's lifestyle show called ciLiving. Gazpacho is a healthy chilled summer vegetable soup that requires no cooking. Most people use tomato juice as a base for Gazpacho, but if you start with V8 instead, you're already halfway there. Of course, I add more fresh veggies for both texture and nutrition. 

Since Gazpacho is a tomato-based soup, it didn’t exist until the discovery of the new world where tomatoes came from. The Spanish and Portuguese brought tomatoes back to Europe in the 1400s and they were the first people to make Gazpacho. Today it is popular all around the Mediterranean and there are many different variations.

You can taste this dish on September 1 when I will be making this exact recipe at my next pop-up dinner at Harvest Market. Gazpacho will be the first course served, but the featured main course will be my version of Seafood Paella, the Spanish national dish made with rice, seafood, chicken, and sausage. It’s a shared dish, traditionally made in a large pan or pot. It’s very popular at celebrations and during holidays. In fact, the name of the dish actually comes from the name of the pan it’s made in. 

Also on the menu for the evening is a selection of Spanish tapas and we'll be serving Sangria flights all night long. Sangria is a wine and fruit punch that can be made with red wine, white wine or even rose. When I make sangria, I always use fresh fruit and fresh fruit juice if at all possible. Fruit is sweet, so you’ll want to use dry wines to balance out the sweetness of the fruit. Then there’s that little extra personal touch that each mixologist can add, like brandy, gin or even liqueurs like amaretto. 

Our pop-up dinners at Harvest Market are not cooking classes. The focus is on eating, not cooking. We only invite 10 guests, so these are intimate affairs. All the guests sit around the kitchen island at Harvest Market’s upstairs demo kitchen – this way everyone gets a front row seat and they can watch their dinner being prepared right in front of their eyes. We also serve wine or cocktail pairings with each course. It’s a “party” so a good time is had by all. The conversations usually revolve around food, wine, culture, travel, etc. And you get to meet like-minded foodies and other adventurous eaters and make new friends. Each pop-up dinner has a different theme. We’ve had some really interesting pop-ups in the past and you can see all of them on my website: www.cooking-with-paul.com/popups.html

WCIA's ciLiving is broadcast every weekday at 3pm and their segments are also archived on YouTube. You can find the full recipe for this Gazpacho recipe and many other dishes on my website: www.cooking-with-paul.com. 

More information about my cooking classes and pop-up events can always be found on my website, where you'll also find over 150 recipes from my classes (no ads!). You can also subscribe to my email newsletter or follow me on Instagram or Facebook and like my posts. Bon appétit!