What To Serve With Gazpacho?

Choosing the right side dish to pair with any main can be quite the challenge, skipping between obvious choices, and trying to make something that screams “original” but sometimes even the simplest of sides can make any meal intensively satisfying. With gazpacho you’re already rewarded with a bowl of cool, raw but delicious blended vegetables that hit the spot deliciously. With every bite you’ll experience a pleasant shiver, and it’s especially scrumptious during the warmer days. If you’re wondering what to serve with gazpacho, then you came to the right place!

Table of Contents

• What is Gazpacho?
• Making Gazpacho
• What To Serve With Gazpacho?
  • Crusty French Bread
  • Cornbread
  • Grilled Vegetables
  • Whole Grain Crackers
  • Herby Chicken Skewers
  • Crispy Fish Sticks
  • Crab Cakes
  • Spanish Tortilla
  • Cheesy Spinach Quiche
  • Mediterranean Pasta Salad
  • Spanish Meatballs
• Gazpacho
• FAQs

What is Gazpacho?

Originating from the Andalusia region of southern Spain, gazpacho is traditionally made from a mixture of pureed tomatoes and other ingredients such as, cucumbers, sweet bell peppers, onions (Spanish onions), garlic and olive oil. You can also make fruit based gazpacho with melons, or even make a cucumber-based gazpacho.

Making Gazpacho

For a tomato-based gazpacho use the sweetest, ripest tomatoes you can find, and remove the tomato seeds before making gazpacho. An easy way to do this, if you’re working with a larger tomato, is by cutting an x in the stem of the tomato, and lowering it into some boiling water for about 30 seconds. Lift it out and immediately plunge it into a bowl of cold water. The extreme change in temperature will force the skin to slip off easily. To remove the seeds cut the tomato in half, and gently squeeze out the seeds.

Gazpacho recipes often include English cucumbers as an ingredient, as they have thin peels that aren’t as bitter as conventional cucumbers so they don’t need to be peeled. But if you’re using regular cucumbers, peel them and remove the seeds before proceeding.

Gazpacho can be as smooth or as lumpy as you like, for semi-smooth gazpacho, chop all the ingredients into a fine dice then puree half of the mixture and return it to the soup. Then taste and adjust the seasonings after it has chilled in the refrigerator before serving.

It’s best to let your gazpacho chill in the fridge as this will allow the flavors to develop. You can garnish your gazpacho with fresh herbs, sour cream, crème Fraîche, olive oil, toasted nuts, bits of chopped vegetables or fruit, or even cold poached shrimp for extra flavor.

What To Serve With Gazpacho?

Gazpacho is a delicious soup that is commonly served during the warm summer months alongside seafood or grilled meats. It’s always great to have a variety of sides for your family and friends to enjoy. You could be having an outdoor party, with homemade burgers cooked on the grill, slap a fresh bowl of gazpacho on the table and you’ll hear a chorus of appreciation. Here’s some sides for a menu to have with gazpacho:

• Crusty French Bread
• Cornbread
• Grilled Vegetables
• Whole Grain Crackers
• Herby Chicken Skewers
• Crispy Fish Sticks
• Crab Cakes
• Spanish Tortilla
• Cheesy Spinach Quiche
• Mediterranean Pasta Salad
• Spanish Meatballs

Crusty French Bread

Crusty French bread seems like the side you desperately need for a cold soup like gazpacho. You can serve it as an entrée, by making crostini. Choose your favorite topping, and simply cut the bread into slices or wedges, brush both sides with olive oil, sprinkle salt on one side and bake at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for five to ten minutes until its nice and golden. If you want more potent flavors then you can brush the bread with some garlic butter before adding the toppings of your choice.

Cornbread

Make this delicious cornbread to pair with your gazpacho, you’ll need cornmeal, salt, buttermilk, eggs and baking soda. Combine each element into a bowl making sure that you whisk in the baking soda right before you pour it into a baking dish. Bake this at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for about 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when stuck into the center. For an even tastier treat add some cheese to your cornbread batter. Break off some of this freshly baked cornbread and sprinkle it in your gazpacho for a delightful addition to your meal. Sometimes its great to listen to your belly, don’t you agree?

Grilled Vegetables

I’m sure we can all agree that vegetables are good for us, but they can be scrumptious enough to be devoured when made properly. For example, grilled vegetables are perfect to enjoy during the summer, especially with a main meal like gazpacho. All you need is some oil and salt, plus whatever vegetable variety you and your family particularly love, like courgette, asparagus, aubergine and more. Just coat the vegetables in oil, sprinkle a little salt, roast them over an open flame, just like you would cook a steak and enjoy.

Whole Grain Crackers

Whole grain crackers are an excellent, but simple appetizer, the recipe doesn’t take long, but it is very rewarding. You will need, all purpose flour, wheat bran, millet seeds, flax seeds, salt, molasses or honey, yeast and water. Assemble all of the ingredients in a large bowl and allow it to rest for an hour at room temperature. These are exceptional when served with a cold soup like gazpacho, if your gazpacho has chunky bits of vegetables, then you can use the cracker to scoop up the soup with some vegetables, for tasty treat.

Herby Chicken Skewers

If you’re going to grill some chicken skewers, you might as well pair this with your favorite bowl of gazpacho. The juicy meat paired with a thick yet runny cold soup is simply irresistible. You’ll need, olive oil, salt, pepper, oregano, thyme, basil, sage, and combine each ingredient into a large bowl and mix well before marinating the strips of chicken overnight. Once its ready you can grill the skewers until they’re medium rare and enjoy them with gazpacho.

Crispy Fish Sticks

Fish sticks are a wonderful side to pair with gazpacho because they’re just so simple to make. All you need is, bread crumbs, eggs, salt, white pepper, oil for frying and fresh fish fillets which you can shape into sticks before breading them in the bread crumbs. You can serve gazpacho and fish sticks with a fresh squeeze of lemon juice, for that perfect tang, or tartar sauce if you prefer.

Crab Cakes

Crab cakes are the perfect way to utilize leftover vegetables, and bread you have lying around in the kitchen. You will acquire seasonings like, salt, pepper, paprika, fresh parsley, green onions, egg white beaten with water, dried bread crumbs, and crab meat. Combine all these ingredients into a large bowl, before using your hands to shape the crab cakes. Cook them on medium-high heat with olive oil for about 5 minutes per side or until they achieve a beautiful golden brown color. They taste perfect when dipped in a sauce, or you could even dip them into your gazpacho for a burst of contrast in flavors.

Spanish Tortilla

This is a dish consisting of fried potatoes and onions with beaten eggs, which goes great with gazpacho and can be served hot or cold. You’ll need onion, olive oil, salt, pepper, green bell peppers (if you wish), potatoes (optional) and cilantro. Chop all your vegetables into small pieces and sauté them in some oil over medium heat for 8 minutes. Add salt and pepper then set them aside. Now peel the skin off your potato before grating them and adding them to the vegetables along with the beaten egg. Cook for five minutes on either side, then garnish with cilantro.

Cheesy Spinach Quiche

What could be more perfect than a big bowl of gazpacho paired with a bright and stupendous cheesy quiche? This savory, creamy and deliciously flaky pie, would certainly have anyone grinning like a Cheshire cat. You’ll need, frozen spinach, homemade pie crush, freshly sliced mushrooms, minced garlic, eggs, milk, Parmesan cheese, shredded cheese, salt and pepper. You might want to thaw your spinach in the microwave, and drain any excess water into the colander, so that your quiche doesn’t come out limp and watery.

Mediterranean Pasta Salad

A hearty pasta salad, is the perfect accompaniment for gazpacho, and it doesn’t get any better than a good Mediterranean pasta salad, brimming with vibrant artichokes, briny olives and capers, salty parmesan, and luxurious pine nuts. There’s even pesto and sun-dried tomatoes too!

All you need to do is cook the pasta and allow it to cool down to room temperature, and in a large bowl combine, artichokes, olives, capers, scallion and parsley, then toss to combine; you can store the pasta in the fridge for a while. For the dressing mix together pesto, olive oil, sun-dried tomato oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper then stir to combine. When you’re ready to serve add the Parmesan cheese and chuck some pine nuts in to the salad and toss to combine.

Spanish Meatballs

If you consider gazpacho to be the main meal of a summertime party, then why not make a large batch of meatballs to serve alongside this soup? Spanish meatballs have everything we need, the potent garlic that we all love and crave, along with two types of meat and a touch of Manchego cheese. Spanish meatballs are traditionally made with pork, veal, beef or any mixture of the three. They are pan-fried before they’re left to simmer in a sauce which effectively infuses them with delicious flavors.

Gazpacho

This warm, hot or cold soup can be served all year round, but is traditionally enjoyed during the summer months, not to mention the delightful potent flavors that are evident when eaten during the much warmer days. Pureed vegetables served with meaty, seafood or baked sides makes the dish even more appetizing. Whether you prefer to eat gazpacho on its own, or combine your favorite ingredients to make one hell of a meal, the choice is yours.

FAQs