Serves: 4
I developed an addiction to the Alvalle Gazpacho when I lived in France. A bowl of this near-as-dammit-homemade soup was just the ticket on a sweltering day when you didn’t want to eat very much. Making gazpacho is not difficult as long as you have a food processor of some sort but this soup is a really, really good short cut-especially when you can’t buy delicious tomatoes. Imagine my delight when I stumbled across it in the UK. It is stocked in Waitrose, Sainsbury and Ocado. Weirdly, you will often find it in the fruit juice section-as if the produce managers have taken one look at the Tetrapak carton without bothering to look at the ingredients. You could stretch the amount to 6 if you wanted to use smaller glasses. It also makes a fantastic canapé-poured into shot glasses and served with a teaspoon.
Ingredients
- 4 sheets leaf gelatine, about 7g
- 700ml Alvalle gazpacho
- 1 ripe avocado, halved and stoned
- 50g natural yogurt
- A dash or two of Tabasco sauce
- Juice of ½ lime
- Basil leaves to decorate
Method
- Soak the leaf gelatine in cold water for 10 minutes until soft, then drain off the water.
- Pour 200ml of the gazpacho into a small saucepan and place over a low heat until hot but not boiling. Take off the heat and stir in the softened gelatine.
- Pour the remaining 500ml gazpacho into a jug and stir in the contents of the saucepan. Pour into 4 small glasses and refrigerate until set-at least 6 hours.
- Scoop out the avocado flesh and place in a mixing bowl. Add the yogurt, Tabasco, lime juice and a good pinch of salt. Purée with a stick blender or mash until smooth. When the jellies are set spoon over the avocado cream and decorate with basil leaves.
