summer gazpacho with zucchini — Green zucchini gazpacho

If you grow zucchini (courgettes) in your vegetable garden, you are certainly familiar with the phenomenon. Suddenly you have to harvest fresh ripe zucchini every day. And how do you continue to incorporate them into tasty dishes without it becoming boring and monotonous? So, to change the routine you might make a green zucchini gazpacho with your fresh harvest. Zucchini like you've never tasted it before! Later in this article we give even more tips to get through the hot summer days and use your zucchini harvest. But we start here with a nice summer zucchini gazpacho.

How to make this tasty green zucchini gazpacho?

This summer zucchini gazpacho is not only tasty and will help you through your zucchini harvest. And not unimportant is that it is also very easy to make. And moreover, you even haven't to heat pots and pans. Let alone light an oven. So no sweating in the kitchen, which is of course most enjoyable during the dog days.

Let's us start with a little bit of cutting work

And it gets even better, because also the carving is reduced to a minimum. On the one hand because we only have a few vegetables to cut. On the other hand, because everything goes into the blender anyway. So a coarse cutting is enough to mix the pieces in the blender.

The main role is of course for the courgettes, aka zucchini. First we cut off the ends and then halve them lengthwise. Then we chop coarse pieces that fit well in the blender.

Next we have spring onions and a green chili pepper to cut. We also remove the ends from the spring onions and then cut them into large pieces that fit in the blender. We halve the green chili pepper lengthwise. Then we remove the seeds. Finally, we also chop the pepper into large pieces that go into the blender.

Of course you have to be careful with that green chili pepper. This is of course quite spicy, but given the volume of gazpacho this is still ok. But as you know tastes are different. And one tongue is more sensitive to spicy than the other. Therefore we keep the green chili pepper as optional. Or you can try to start with half a pepper. As you like.

Mixing the green zucchini gazpacho

As said, all we have to do now is grind all the ingredients in the blender into a green gazpacho soup. So we place the zucchini, the spring onions and the chili pepper in the blender.

Then we add the Greek yogurt and the vegetable stock. The Greek yogurt is relatively thick and gives a creamy touch to the gazpacho. The vegetable stock adds moisture and flavor. Zucchini don't carry that much flavor in themselves. So it is important to add additional aromas so that our gazpacho does not taste cold and dull. And since taste is very individual, you can also vary according to your own taste here.

As additional flavor carriers I have added a little olive oil and lemon juice here. And because I just had quite a bit of mint and basil in the garden, I also used those. They also contribute to the distinct green color of our gazpacho.

Finally, there are salt and pepper to season the gazpacho. After mixing, be sure to taste whether there is already enough spice in the zucchini gazpacho! Once that is the case, you can put the green zucchini gazpacho in the fridge for a few hours.

Serving and presenting our green zucchini gazpacho

After a few hours or a night in the fridge, our green zucchini gazpacho is at the right cold temperature to be served. You can do this in a deep plate or in a cup.

And now it is time for the finishing part. You can use a dot of sour cream or Greek yogurt. If you have a piece of zucchini left over, you can also use it to decorate your plate, to remove the last doubt about the protagonist. A leaf of mint or basil always look nice on such a plate.

About gazpacho

Most people will know gazpacho as that cold Spanish soup. And otherwise the word "gazpacho" will lead you to a Spanish origin.

And indeed gazpacho is a Spanish starter or soup with lots of vegetables and herbs that is served cold. The exact origin is not so clear, but it goes back at least to the Moors and perhaps even to the Romans. In Latin, “Caspa” means rest, so it could well be a soup made from vegetable leftovers. But the Moors and local Spanish shepherds probably made similar dishes.

The most famous and best know gazpacho is of course the one with red tomatoes. Especially abroad, outside of Spain. But that's definitely not the original version. It wasn't until the 19th century that tomatoes made their appearance in this cold soup. But that is how it is now best known internationally.

Are you also a fan of gazpacho meanwhile? And would you like to try other variants? Then we have these surprisingly tasty tips on offer:

More surprising.zucchini

Anyone who has a vegetable garden with zucchini knows it for sure. A zucchini never comes alone. A few plants are enough for daily harvesting pleasure. But of course you still have to process them. Zucchini keep well in a dark cool place, but still they have to be consumed sooner or later. And nobody likes to eat the same dish for weeks on end. So here we have more tasty and surprising recipes to enjoy the zucchini harvest:

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