The King of Cold Soups

Gazpacho

Gazpacho is a Spanish tomato-based raw vegetable cold soup, originating from the Southern region of Andalusia. Gazpacho is widely consumed throughout Spain, Portugal, and parts of Latin America. Gazpacho is mostly popular during summer months, due to its refreshing qualities.

Gazpacho is known to be the King of cold soups, and Spain has many variations of Gazpacho. The famous tomato-based gazpacho originally came from Seville, Andalucia, in the Southern part of the country, with its origins in Moorish and Roman cuisines. Gazpacho is made with garlic, stale bread, olive oil, vinegar, and ground almonds. ​​Gazpacho origin is an old soup called ‘Ajo Blanco’ or ‘White Gazpacho.’ With New World discoveries, peppers and tomatoes were brought back to Spain from 1492 and were added to the soup.

The classic dish remained popular as a way to cool off during the summer and to use available fresh vegetables and stale bread. Nowadays, there are many modern variations of gazpacho, often in different colors, omitting tomatoes and bread in favor of avocados, cucumbers, fresh herbs, watermelon, grapes, shellfish, and other ingredients. Gazpacho has become an almost generic term for chilled vegetable soup, making it the King of cold soups.