Gazpacho Recipe by Tres Carnes

Summertime food for most might invoke images of grills, hot dogs, ice cream, and maybe even alcoholic slushies delivered to your door (until they were taken away from us), but to Sasha Shor, executive chef of Tres Carnes here in NYC, it means gazpacho. If you aren’t familiar, gazpacho is a Spanish soup that is traditionally comprised of tomato, cucumber, bell pepper, onion, garlic, olive oil, wine vinegar, water, and salt. While that may not sound terribly exciting, when chefs get creative with it, it absolutely is. Case in point, we ran into Sasha working at her restaurant in the financial district (one of three Tres Carnes across Manhattan) and she invited us to watch her make her version. Tomatillos, green salsa, even a little agave nectar all made their way into a food processor during the demonstration and the end result? A fantastically crisp, refreshing soup that’ll magically cool the temperature down outside (or at the very least take your mind off it). Sasha was kind enough to give us this fantastic recipe (that is also available for order in the restaurants for a limited time) and even get in the kitchen and show us how to make it so, without further ado, here’s Tres Carnes’s gazpacho recipe.

Gazpacho Recipe

Sasha, working with tomatillos to make a delicious cold, summer gazpacho soup:

Ingredients for Cucumber-Green Apple Pico de Gallo

This recipe makes about 1 quart of pico and can be used on lots of things to brighten up their flavors, but you can easily cut it in half if only using as a garnish for the gazpacho. You’ll want to chop apples first and toss with the lime juice to prevent browning while you prepare the rest of the pico.

• 2 Granny Smith apples, cored and cut into ¼ inch dice
• ½ large European cucumber, end trimmed, seeded, skin on, cut into ¼ inch dice
• ½ cup white onion, diced
• ¼ cup chopped cilantro
• 3 TBSP lime juice
• ½ teaspoon agave nectar (can substitute ¼ tsp sugar)
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt

Recipe for Cucumber-Green Apple Pico de Gallo

1. Mix all well, keep covered and chill.

Now for the gazpacho itself!

Ingredients for Gazpacho

• 2 pounds (approximately 4 fresh cucumbers) peeled and cut into large chunks
• 1 pound, approximately 12 medium fresh tomatillos, husked, rinsed, quartered
• 1/2 cup chopped yellow onion
• 1/2 teaspoon chopped garlic
• 1/4 cup chopped cilantro
• 3/4 cup jarred green salsa
• 1/4 cup green sofrito
• 1/3 cup fresh lime juice
• 3/4 cup water
• 1 Tablespoon agave nectar (can substitute 1 tsp sugar)
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 1/4 cup white vinegar

Recipe for the Gazpacho

1. In a food processor, puree all raw vegetables (cucumbers, tomatillos, onions, garlic, cilantro) with salt and vinegar until no large chunks remain and all is an even consistency.

2. Empty into a large bowl and set aside. In same food processor, puree together tomatillo salsa, green sofrito, agave nectar and lime juice.

3. Add this mixture to the fresh vegetable puree and whisk in water at end to thin down to a soup-like consistency. Chill overnight or for at least 4 hours. Serve in cups or small bowls with apple-cucumber pico on top of each serving as a garnish.

For a little bonus, here is Chef Sasha Shor giving us a brief explanation of one of the main ingredients in this gazpacho recipe: the tomatillo.

For more info on Tres Carnes, a great new “texas smoked mexican fare” set of restaurants here in NYC, check them out on Twitter, Facebook, and Yelp or head into one of their three locations here in Manhattan, they’re doing some awesome things wrapped in a tortilla.