Salmorejo Cordobés #SoupSwappers

This year, Wendy of A Day in the Life on the Farm kicked off her new group: Soup Saturday Swappers. And this month P. of The Saucy Southerner asked us to share some recipes for chilled soups. They are such a great summer dinner. I'm grateful to have a few more recipes to try.

When I started thinking about chilled soups, all the usual suspects popped into my mind. I've made Chilled Pea Shooters, Rabarbersuppe Med Vin (Danish Rhubarb Wine Soup), White Gazpacho, and at least half a dozen different versions of fruit and veggie gazpachos made with peaches, olallieberries, watermelon, cucumbers, Yes, clearly, I'm a gazpacho fanatic.

But I didn't want to make a gazpacho as there will be so many from which to choose with the group this month. I decided to go with Salmorejo Cordobés, gazpacho's richer, deeper cousin. This was something that a friend from Spain taught me last year. With its hard-boiled eggs and salty ham topping, it's more of a dinner - to me - than a starter. So, I whipped this up one summer evening and poured a hearty Tempranillo to go with it. Salud!

Salmorejo Cordobés

Ingredients

• 1 C water
• 1 t coarse salt (I used a smoked fleur de sel)
• 1 C bread (I used some gluten-free sandwich bread)
• 3 to 4 C sliced tomatoes
• 1 to 2 shallots, peeled and diced
• 1 garlic clove, peeled
• 1/4 C vinegar (traditional would be sherry wine vinegar)
• 1 T freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1 C olive oil
• 3 hard-boiled eggs, coarsely chopped
• 1/4 C chopped ham (I used Jamón Serrano), crisped and cooled
• freshly ground salt, as needed
• freshly ground pepper, as needed
• Spanish olive oil for serving, optional

Preparation

Place torn pieces of bread in a small bowl and add in the salt and water. Let bread soak for at least 30 minutes.

Place the soaked bread, soaking liquid, tomatoes, shallots, garlic, vinegar, and lemon juice in the bowl of a food processor. Puree, pouring olive oil slowing through the chute. Process until smooth and thick. Cover and chill for at least 2 hours before serving. Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper as needed.

To Serve, ladle soup into small bowls. Sprinkle chopped egg and ham over the top. If desired, drizzle with Spanish olive oil and serve immediately.

The Rest of the Chilled Soups...

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