Cold Vegetable Soup (Gazpacho)

Ingredients

• 4 slices white bread
• 1 green bell pepper
• 1 cucumber
• 8 tomatoes
• 400 ml tomato juice
• 1 onion
• 1 Garlic clove
• 2 tbsp Lime juice
• 1 tsp paprika powder
• 4 tbsp olive oil
• Salt
• Cayenne pepper
• brown sugar
• ground black pepper

Instructions

1. 1.

   Soak the white bread in 4-5 tbsp lukewarm water after removing crusts, then crumble two slices.

2. 2.

   Wash, halve, and pit the bell pepper. Peel, lengthwise halve, and deseed the cucumber. Blanch tomatoes briefly in boiling salted water, shock in ice water, peel, quarter, and seed. Pass seeds through a sieve, collect juice, and add to tomato juice. Peel and finely dice onion and garlic. Dice the pepper, cucumber, and tomatoes into small cubes. Reserve about 4 tbsp for garnish; blend the rest with onion, garlic, tomato juice, drained bread, lime juice, paprika, and 2 tbsp olive oil until smooth. If too thick, add water. Season with salt, cayenne pepper, sugar, and black pepper, then chill for at least one hour.

3. 3.

   Dice remaining bread into small cubes and fry in the remaining olive oil until golden brown. Drain on paper towels.

4. 4.

   Taste the soup before serving, ladle onto plates, and sprinkle with leftover vegetable cubes and croutons.