Recipe: Gazpacho and Chickpea Salad

Hey guys! ☀ This is one of my favorite dinners for lazy summer days ... another traditional Spanish recipe called gazpacho and some easy to make chickpea salad. Enjoy!

Gazpacho is a vegetable soup that is served cold. The varieties are infinite and you can add or replace whatever you like and tastes good, such as beetroot and apple or watermelon.

Though the gazpacho is actually a cold vegetable soup, I like to compare it to a smoothie. Personally, I love smoothies. They're such a great way to eat more fresh fruits and vegetables and I think they're really healthy. But, I'm not too much into fruits, to be honest. I love them, but I can't really stand the sweetness of 'em. The gazpacho is a perfect alternative for me, since it's basically a smoothie made out of vegetables!

Here's the recipe (don't take too serious the quantity indications, they're just a guideline):

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Ingredients

for the gazpacho

• 1 kg of ripe tomatoes
• 1 cucumber
• 1 green pepper
• ½ onion
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 slice of bread, soaked in water
• 6 tablespoons of olive oil
• 3 tablespoons of white <strong<vinegar
• salt

for the chickpea salad

• 1 can of chickpeas
• 1 red pepper
• 1 tomato
• 1 cucumber
• olives
• salt, pepper
• olive oil
• 1 small lemon
• chopped chives

Instructions

...for the gazpacho
The recipe is just as easy as mixing all the ingredients in a blender and done! I usually add some water to it, maybe 1 or 2 cups, depending on the texture you want. It should be about as liquid as a soup. You also can augment the amount of vinegar and olive oil, until it tastes as you like.
Now, put it in the fridge for some hours and let it cool down.
You can garnish the gazpacho with finely minced cucumber, red and green pepper, tomatoes or bread croutons. I highly recommend the croutons!

...for the chickpea salad
Cut the red pepper, tomato and cucumber into small pieces, just about the size of the chickpeas, and put them into a large bowl. Rinse the chickpeas and add them to the bowl, as well as the olives. Now add the salt, pepper and chives and squeeze the lemon over the salad. Add some olive oil and stir well. You're done!

I've complemented the dish with some avocado and tomato bread, which went so well with it. It's so good to dip the bread into the gazpacho.

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I hope you all like the recipe and enjoy summer time. Please, let me know what you think!

Enjoy your weekend! ૐ