Casual Conversation

I'll pitch my favourite food and drink, gazpacho. Basically a thick (or not) vegetable smoothie (no, it's not a soup). The basic ingredients are stale bread, tomato, cucumbers, bell peppers, garlic, olive oil, wine vinegar, water, and salt. You can add or take ingredients as you please to make it to your taste.

Some tips. I always put onion too (I'm a bitch for onions). I use Italian green bell peppers, because I like the flavour and smell they give to the dish. You can put spices to your taste, I usually put cumin and/or pimentón (smoked paprika) and/or white pepper. The tomatoes have to be ripe, the riper the better. The bread must be stale, in the style of a baguette or loaf bread, not soft sliced bread, you can also put no bread. The oil must be olive oil, with other oils the flavour is just not gazpacho's anymore. I often use sherry vinegar instead of wine vinegar, other vinegars than those two don't work that well. The main ingredient is the tomatoes, the other add/modify the flavour, if you don't like some of them just don't put it. You can add/substitute other things, I like to put watermelon, substituting some of the water, for example. Other ingredients I've tried are carrots, strawberries, cherries, beets, broccoli... You control the thickness with the bread and the water, from very light and liquid without bread and more water (great to just drink a cold mug in the summer) to a very thick paste/cream (a variety called salmorejo, without cucumber, onion, or extra ingredients, is served like this, with crumbs of hard boiled egg and cured ham as toppings), you can pass it through a colander to take out the seeds, peel bits, and other chunks left after blending. If you're eating it with a spoon, instead of drinking it, it's usually served with some finely diced vegetables (the same that went in) and croutons as toppings. Depending on your taste it can be from chill to cold, never warm. Pro tip: taking out the seeds from the bell peppers and cucumbers, and the garlic germ beforehand will make it softer on the stomach.

If you (or anyone reading this) wanna try it and have any questions don't hesitate and hit me a message, I'm a mad gazpachier and will be very glad to answer them.