White Gazpacho

Sope de Ajo Blanco is a cold almond and garlic soup typical of southern Spain. It requires no cooking, takes only a few minutes to assemble, and results in a flavourful refreshing soup ideal for summer days when it's too hot to even think about turning the oven on.

The basic recipe is infinitely adaptable. I've seen variations which include green apple, cucumber, or fennel in the soup base, so don't be afraid to experiment a little. You can really have fun with the garnishes here, a crispy sliver of pancetta, toasted pine nuts, a swirl of pesto, or a single perfectly seared scallop are some of my favorites, but the possibilities are endless.

Green grapes are the traditional Spanish garnish, I'm also adding a few croutons that have been lightly seasoned with some smoked paprika for a little heat and crunch.

Feel free to adjust the garlic to your liking, I generally go with one clove per serving but double that for true garlic lovers.
Be sure to use good quality artisanal bread for this recipe, a soft white loaf won't do. Day-old sourdough is the best option.

• 3 cups water
• 100 grams or 4 cups day-old sourdough bread cubed
• 1 cup ground almonds or almond flour*
• 3-5 cloves garlic, finely minced
• 1/2 cup almond milk (unsweetened)
• 1⁄4 - 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tablespoons sherry vinegar or chive blossom vinegar
• 1 cup sliced Seedless green grapes, for garnish (optional)

*you could substitute whole blanched almonds as well, just process them a little longer.

Remove the crust from the bread and cut in cubes.

Combine the water, bread, ground almonds, and garlic in a big bowl and let sit for 10-15 minutes, until the bread has softened.

Pour the mixture through a wire strainer into another bowl. Press on the solids to remove as much liquid as possible.  Reserve the liquid and add the solids to the bowl of your food processor fitted with the metal blade (you could also do this in a blender). Add the almond milk, olive oil, and vinegar and purée until smooth.

The mixture will be quite thick at this point, so start by adding about half of the reserved soaking liquid and pulse to combine. Test the soup for seasoning and continue to add reserved soaking liquid until the soup has reached thee desired consistency. You may want add a pinch of salt at this point too.

I think the flavour is improved by a few hours in the fridge, but if you want to serve this soup immediately just start with ice cold water and it will be fine.

Served in a bowl of ice with fresh herbs, this simple soup is fancy enough for company!

Since this is such a humble peasant soup, I decided that I would present it in a fancy bowl made of ice. I've been sort of obsessed with ice bowls since I watched this video. These things happen, I will eventually get over it.

A few helpful hints if you want to jump on the ice bowl bandwagon.

• Make sure that whatever you plan on serving in the bowl of ice is, in fact, ice cold. Otherwise the bowl will start to melt, leading to watery soup, or worse, a collapsed bowl.
• Make a bowl with thick walls and base, at least an inch thick, to ensure stability.
• Less is more when it comes to embedding things in your bowl of ice.  Too many herbs, slices of fruit, or edible flowers will weaken this structure of the bowl.
• For safety sake, serve the ice bowl in a vessel large enough to contain the melted bowl and it's contents. I learned this lesson the hard way.