Waste Not Want Not Wednesdays – Mother’s Day Gazpacho

Written by on in Recipes, Soup, Starter, Waste Not Want Not Wednesdays

This is the new feature I’ll be running on Wheelie Good Meals, it will alternate with Time-Saving Tuesdays.

What is Waste Not Want Not Wednesdays

Waste Not Want Not Wednesdays comes from my Grandmother she used to say Waste Not Want Not all the time, it was also a saying that Reverend Timms used to say on Postman Pat… sad I know!

As a nation we generate so much food waste it’s unbelieveable, I haven’t long recently cleared out some jars and bottles that were out of date. Spurred on by the needless waste, I thought it was time to look in to this whole problem in more detail. I recently read that the United Kingdom tops the European Union’s food waste charts.

We often get confused by the different dates that can be found on food packaging “Use By” “Best Before” and “Display Until” , if like me you are unsure visit this website here.

This week’s recipe

As you know my sister, brother-in-law and I cooked for my mother and his mother, we served Gazpacho as one of our starters, here’s how I made it, the full article that I based my recipe on can be found here

Mother’s Day Gazpacho

Mother's Day Gazpacho - Ingredients
Mother’s Day Gazpacho – Ingredients

The ingredients are easy they included peppers, tinned tomatoes, fresh tomato, lazy garlic, bread, cucumber, Sweet Muscatel Vinegar and olive oil.

Mother's Day Gazpacho - Bread soaking in water
Mother’s Day Gazpacho – Bread soaking in water

Place the slices of bread in a dish with enough water and leave it for twenty minutes, you can bypass that step but the article suggested it was a good idea, who was I to argue.

Mother's Day Gazpacho - Chopped up cucumber and peppers
Mother’s Day Gazpacho – Chopped up cucumber and peppers

Chop up the peppers and the cucumber, as we’re going to blitz it don’t chop it too small, but chop it small enough to allow the blender to bitz them up.

Mother's Day Gazpacho - Cucumber and peppers in the blender
Mother’s Day Gazpacho – Cucumber and peppers in the blender

Place them in the blender jug and set aside for later,

Mother's Day Gazpacho - Chop up a tomato for freshness
Mother’s Day Gazpacho – Chop up a tomato for freshness

Chop up the tomato and put in the jug with the peppers and cucumber, the original recipe says to 1 KG of tomatoes but I didn’t have that many fresh tomatoes – I have added this one for freshness, but I’ll use tinned tomatoes later on.

Mother's Day Gazpacho - Add the lazy garlic to the blender
Mother’s Day Gazpacho – Add the lazy garlic to the blender

Next add 2 teaspoons of lazy garlic, you could use two garlic cloves or garlic powder.

Mother's Day Gazpacho - Add the olive oil to the blender
Mother’s Day Gazpacho – Add the olive oil to the blender

To the blender add 100ml of olive oil, excuse the mess, you’ll notice the silver container on the left – that’s what I use to keep my rubbish in. Because of easy access I keep all my peels, seeds etc in the silver container close to me on the table.

Mother's Day Gazpacho - Add a tin of tomatoes to the blender
Mother’s Day Gazpacho – Add a tin of tomatoes to the blender

Add the tin of tomatoes and then blitz, you can do lots of things at this point, you can add herbs, tobacco sauce, Worcester sauce, or some dry mixed herbs but…… yep you’ve guessed it I kept to the original recipe.

Mother's Day Gazpacho - Ring out the bread and rip in to chunks
Mother’s Day Gazpacho – Ring out the bread and rip in to chunks

Take the bread and ring the water out of them, then rip the slices into chunks and add to the blender – and blitz

Mother's Day Gazpacho - After blending add some seasoning to the blender
Mother’s Day Gazpacho – After blending add some seasoning to the blender

Season and then blitz again, season with salt and pepper, I like to add a bit more pepper than most people…. as you can see… but that’s personal taste.

Mother's Day Gazpacho - Add the sweet muscatel vinegar to the blender
Mother’s Day Gazpacho – Add the sweet muscatel vinegar to the blender

Add 2 tablespoons of the vinegar and stir through, you can blitz it up again to ensure that the vinegar and seasoning is distributed throughout the soup. Once you’ve made it sieve it to make sure it looks smooth, you’ll be surprised how much this makes and it can be frozen or kept in the fridge for a couple of days.

Mother's Day Gazpacho - Finely chop spring onions, cucumber and peppers for the garnish
Mother’s Day Gazpacho – Finely chop spring onions, cucumber and peppers for the garnish

We served this with lots of little garnishes, tiny slices of cucumber and spring onions and tiny diced peppers and croutons.   There are lots of garnishes that you can use, but this is what the recipe recommended, credit to Graham for his amazing knife skills… puts mine to shame.

Mother's Day Gazpacho - Served in an espresso glass for effect
Mother’s Day Gazpacho – Served in an espresso glass for effect

Here it is in all its glory, served with garnishes. Don’t write it off, I know it’s cold soup and you’re probably thinking yuck… but please don’t it’s refreshing, light, zingy and great as a starter especially on a warm day. Heather’s espresso cups are awesome, I’m quite jealous, we were going to serve them in a shot glass, but this added a level of class.  To read more about our Mother’s day meal 2016, visit here.

Waste Not Want Not Wednesdays - Mother's Day Gazpacho
Waste Not Want Not Wednesdays – Mother’s Day Gazpacho

What’s next?

This feature will be looking at food waste, using left over products, products that are on the edge of their date and much more. What do you think I should include, give me your thoughts? Remember to get in touch, you can visit our social media pages below, or subscribe to the blog for regular updates.Wheelie Good Meals Social Networking

Thanks for stopping by, see you on the weekend for more 6 Nations of food…. come on Wales!

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