Courgette Gazpacho with Plum Vine Tomato Sorbet, by Derek Johnstone, Head Chef at Borthwick Castle
I’d like to share a simple gazpacho recipe with you today – a dish that is ideal for a quick summer’s lunch or served as a starter at dinner on a warm evening.
Gazpacho is a cold soup, a popular dish in Spain which originated in the southern region of Andalusia. The beauty of gazpacho is that it can be made well in advance, allowing you to spend more time at the table with family and friends rather than in the kitchen. Keep your gazpacho nice and chilled in the fridge and serve it once it’s ready – it’s healthy, straightforward, refreshing and absolutely delicious, which is always a winning combination as far as I’m concerned!
As with all dishes, sourcing the freshest ingredients is vital to the success of your gazpacho. Good quality courgettes, cucumbers and basil leaves are key to achieve the beautiful green hue of this dish, and those fresh flavours which just can’t be beaten. Over the years I’ve tasted a variety of different flavoured gazpachos – tomato is particularly popular – but I do think this courgette recipe is up there with the best of them.
Serving gazpacho with savoury sorbet gives the dish a nice little kick, and ripe plum tomatoes really complement the flavours of the courgette. Sorbet is deceptively simple to make; you can use an ice cream maker if you have one, but this recipe sets just as well after a few hours in the freezer. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
Serves 4
Ingredients
For the courgette gazpacho:
300g courgette, cut into chunks
100g spinach, washed
1x green pepper, with the seeds removed
2x spring onions, chopped
3x cloves of garlic, crushed
5x leaves of basil
1x stick of celery, chopped
100g cucumber, seeded and chopped
50ml sherry vinegar
80ml olive oil
A pinch of salt
A dash of green tabasco
For the courgette and green olive garnish:
25g diced pitted green olives
50g diced courgettes
A dash of rapeseed oil
Picked thyme leaves
Salt, to season
For the plum vine tomato sorbet:
4x plum tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped
15ml olive oil
30ml red wine vinegar
A pinch of chopped tarragon
A pinch of cayenne pepper
45ml simple syrup (equal amounts of water and caster sugar, boiled and cooled)
Zest of ½ small orange (blanched and cut into short, thin strips)
20g finely diced shallots
Method
For the courgette gazpacho:
1. Bring a pot of water to the boil. Boil the courgette for one minute, then add the spinach.
2. Cook for 30 seconds, then drain and refresh.
3. Mix the rest of the ingredients for the gazpacho together and leave to marinate overnight.
4. The next day, liquidise the mixture in a food processor and strain through a fine sieve. Leave to chill until ready to serve.
For the courgette and green olive garnish:
1. Wash, dice and pan fry the courgettes in the rapeseed oil until soft and lightly coloured.
2. Leave the courgettes to chill, then season with salt and add the picked thyme leaves.
3. Mix the courgettes with the diced green olives and set aside until ready to serve.
For the plum vine tomato sorbet:
1. Make simple syrup by mixing equal parts boiling water and caster sugar. Leave to cool and set aside until required.
2. Bring the tomatoes to a boil in a saucepan. Reduce the heat and cook, stirring often for around 45 minutes, or until the tomatoes are reduced by half. There should still be some liquid remaining in the pan.
3. Heat the oil, add the shallots, and cook for 7-8 minutes until tender.
4. Add the shallots to the tomatoes, then add the orange zest.
5. Leave to chill, then liquidise in a food processor, along with the rest of the ingredients.
6. Churn in an ice cream machine to create the sorbet. Alternatively, leave in the freezer overnight to create the sorbet.
To serve:
Pour the chilled soup into bowls. Serve with a scoop of tomato sorbet in the centre of each dish, on top of a spoonful of diced courgettes and olives.
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here