Summers are getting increasingly hot. Not just for one day, but prolonged heat waves. So we have to adjust our eating habits accordingly. On the one hand, you don't like to sweat in the kitchen at those temperatures. On the other hand, you need light food and, above all, plenty of fluids. And so we arrive at this summer watermelon gazpacho. A tasty solution as a festive aperitif or as a starter. Further down in the article you will learn what gazpacho exactly is, and which variations you can make.

About summer watermelon gazpacho

The basic ingredients for this summery watermelon gazpacho are watermelon (of course), cucumber, red bell pepper and tomatoes. First and foremost you must wash these last three thoroughly. The recipe is a cold preparation and then we do not want to process any dirt that hangs on the skin.

Since everything still goes into the blender, you only have to cut the vegetables and the watermelon into coarse pieces. Before that, you only have to clean them in a classic way: remove the hard green part of the tomatoes from the stem, remove the seeds from the peppers. If not done yet, you should also remove the skin of the watermelon. We want only the inner flesh. Also remove the pips if there are many in them. Otherwise, the seeds will give off a bitter taste. You can peel the cucumber, but you shouldn't. I do not do that. I just clean it thoroughly.

Adding some additional flavor to your summer watermelon gazpacho

In addition to these basic ingredients, we do add extra seasonings. I like to add a red chili pepper to it. Of course also stripped of the pips. If you are afraid that it will be too spicy, you can also take half a pepper. However, I do like a slightly pungent aftertaste in my mouth.

And then of course we have the Tabasco. On the total amount it distributes well and your mouth is not on fire. Are you a little scared? Reduce the amount here too and regularly taste how tasty your gazpacho is, without it becoming too spicy.

A handful of fresh cilantro also adds up a lot to the flavor. But not everyone likes that. You can simply omit it or replace it with parsley or mint leaves. Mint also combines very well with watermelon.

And what to do with the watermelon leftovers?

Watermelons are among the biggest fruits you can buy. Even if you buy a "mini" watermelon. So most probably you will have some watermelon leftover. Of course you can eat it any time of the day. It is delicious, sweet and you need a lot of fluids on these hot days.

But you can also use it on the next day in your lunch. Another surprising recipe with watermelon is our strawberry watermelon salad. With also arugula salad, pine nuts and goat cheese you can make a delicious healthy lunch salad.

About gazpacho

Gazpacho is a cold Spanish soup with vegetables and spices. Nowadays tomatoes are the main ingredient, although this wasn't always the case from the beginning. As with many older recipes, the origins are not really well documented. The first traces appear to go back to the Roman era. The Moors would then have further developed it into a mixture of water, olive oil and garlic that was eaten with bread. The tomatoes, which give it its typical red color, were only added in the 19th century.

Nowadays a classic gazpacho consists of tomatoes, cucumber, bell pepper and onions as the main ingredients. And it is eaten with bread or croutons in it.

You may find more information on the history of gazpacho and some really good classic gazpacho recipes in the following articles:

We also have another surprising gazpacho recipe here. Be sure to try this one on another hot summer day:

Creamy peach gazpacho with almonds.

More surprising.summer

As mentioned in the beginning of the article: summers are getting hotter and longer hotter. So we are increasingly in a need to change our eating habits to cope with this. Fortunately we have some other great ideas here on surprising.recipes:

If you speak Dutch, you can find the Dutch version of this recipe on gerechtenweb.blog.