Spanish White Gazpacho, Ajoblanco

"Ajoblanco," literally, "white garlic," is a chilled soup from Andalusia in Spain. Andalusia is a large region in southern Spain, with its internationally best known cities "likely being" Cádiz, Córdoba and Seville. 

Ingredients:

3/4 cup blanched almonds
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
3 cloves garlic
1/2 cup seedless cucumber, peeled and chopped
3 to 5 slices dried Italian bread (not the squishy kind), crusts removed, torn into pieces*
2 tablespoons sherry vinegar or 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar + 1 teaspoon sherry
15 seedless green grapes
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups cold water
aioli (1/2 cup mayonnaise, 3 cloves garlic, 2 tablespoons olive oil, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, 1/4 teaspoon salt, pinch of black pepper)**
sour cream, blanched almond slivers and seedless grapes (halved), for garnishing

First, make the aioli by blending the mayonnaise, the garlic the olive oil, the lemon juice and the salt and pepper; blend until smooth. Put all ingredients into a processor and process to desired consistency. Most recipes I've ever seen recommend processing until smooth, but I keep a little chunkiness to mine, but whatever you like. Chill well, serve each with a dollop of sour cream (low fat type is fine), some almond slivers and seedless green grape halves. 

* Using 3 slices will keep the soup thin, use 4 or 5 for thicker soup.

** Aioli is a type of sauce common is Spain, and also parts of southern France and northeastern Italy. Recipes vary, but in the U.S. aioli is generally a garlic flavored mayonnaise, which it is in some parts of Spain too, while in other parts it is more olive oil and garlic, with salt and perhaps some lemon juice. 

WORD HISTORY: 
Blank-This word, distantly related to "blue" and to "blitz" (a borrowing from German) and to "blanch" (a borrowing from French), goes back to Indo European "bhel(g)," which had the notion of, "to shine, to be bright." This gave Old Germanic "blankaz," which meant, "bright, white, gleam." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "blanc" (likely pronounced "blahnk), which meant, "white, gray (British spelling=grey), pale." It also gave Frankish, a Germanic dialect/language, "blank," with the same meanings. This was absorbed into Old French as "blanc/blanche," which was carried to England by the Normans as "blaunc," and this reinforced the closely related English word, or replaced it as "blank." The idea of  "white, pale" developed into "colorless," which then further developed to "empty;" thus with both meanings giving English a number of specific modern meanings noun/adjective/verb, such as, "blank space" (white, colorless space), blank bullet/shell (casing with gunpowder, but no projectile to be fired), blank (without markings or designs), to blank (in sports, to stop the opposing team from scoring goals, runs or points).