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).

Gazpacho And Summer

For those unfamiliar with Gazpacho, it is a cold Spanish soup, especially associated with the southern Spanish province of Andalusia, but with versions served throughout Spain and Portugal. Understand, there are some big variations from region to region, one of the variations being the addition of herbs in some recipes, and some where the soup is served with no vegetable chunks, but rather totally smooth. It is a natural soup for hot summer weather, and it is low in calories, but packed with all sorts of nutrients from the vegetables. This is my own recipe, but "based" upon the Andalusian type.

Ingredients:
1 lb. grape tomatoes or Roma tomatoes (halve the grape tomatoes, or coarsely chop the Roma tomatoes)
1 46 or 48 oz. can tomato or vegetable juice (I use vegetable juice)
1 medium onion (half for food processor, half coarsely chopped)
1 medium cucumber (half for processor, half coarsely chopped)
1 medium red or yellow bell pepper (half for food processor, half coarsely chopped)
2 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped for food processor
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons red wine
2 tablespoons vinegar
bread torn or cut into bite-sized chunks and/or Panko breadcrumbs, to thickness preference
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
if you like some heat, add a finely chopped hot chili pepper, like jalapeno or serrano
garnish with chopped hard-boiled egg

Put a little of the juice into a food processor. Add half of the onion, half of the cucumber, and half of the bell pepper, plus all of the garlic and the olive oil, pulse until smooth, adding more juice a little at a time. Transfer to whatever serving bowl or pan you will use. Add the chopped tomatoes, cucumber, bell pepper, vinegar, red wine, bread chunks/breadcrumbs, salt and pepper, stir to mix well. What I do is stir in the red wine and bread chunks to individual servings, rather than add it to the overall soup, then I also use a small amount of breadcrumbs, which I sprinkle on top of each serving. If you are not going to serve all of the soup at one time, remember, the bread will get mushy and thicken the soup the longer it sits, that's why I add it to the individual servings. You can also garnish each serving with some chopped egg.

With the red wine, but without the bread yet added

With the bread and some breadcrumbs I sprinkled on top.

WORD HISTORY:
Cold-This common word, related to "cool," and somewhat more distantly related to "gel," goes back to Indo European "gel/gol," which carried the notion, "to be cold, to feeze, to solidify from cold." This gave its Old Germanic offspring "kaldaz," meaning "cold." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "cald/ceald," depending upon dialect, but with the same meaning.^ These later became "cold," and that form has lasted for many centuries into the present. The noun was derived from the adjective in the 12th Century, and it came to be applied to the illness in the 1500s. The other Germanic languages have (adjective forms): German "kalt," Low German Saxon "koolt," West Frisian "kâld," Dutch "koude" (no mistake, no "L"), Danish "kold," Icelandic "kaldur," Norwegian "kald," Swedish "kall."

^ Some speculate that the old forms of "cold" were really participle forms of an Old Germanic verb, then used as an adjective, and that's not an unreasonable possibility.