Chilled Tomato Gazpacho Soup with Crab
By: Sheri Wetherell
Published: Tuesday, September 10, 2019 - 1:24pm

Ingredients




For the soup:
3 pounds ripe tomatoes (preferably heirloom), peeled
1 tablespoon sherry vinegar
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 slices bread, torn into small pieces (for a gluten-free version use plain white bread or 1/2 cup GF-style saltine crackers, such as Schar Table Crackers, crushed)
Garnishes:
1 pound (or more!) fresh crab (or canned if you can’t find fresh), chilled
1 small white onion, finely diced
1 each red, yellow and orange pepper, seeded and finely diced
1/2 small English cucumber, skin on and finely diced
1 avocado, diced
Croutons
A good quality olive oil and sherry vinegar for drizzling

Preparation

1 Remove stems from tomatoes. With a sharp paring knife, score an X on the bottoms of each. Place in a large pot, fill with water to cover, and bring to a boil. Cook until the skins begin to roll back: about 3-4 minutes once boiling. Remove tomatoes with a slotted spoon and place in a large bowl; set aside and allow to chill. Once tomatoes are cold enough to handle, remove the skins. Return tomatoes to the bowl and place in the refrigerator until chilled; at least 1 hour. 2 While tomatoes are chilling prepare the garnishes and arrange on a plate (as shown) or in separate bowls. 3 Remove tomatoes from refrigerator and place them, along with all their juices, in a large blender or food processor (you may need to do this in batches depending on the capacity of your blender/processor). Add the vinegar, salt, and bread and process until smooth. If you like a thinner version, slowly add cold water. 4 Divide soup among bowls. Gently place a pile of crab in the center of each bowl. Drizzle with olive oil and sherry vinegar, garnish with veggies and croutons (or let guests do the garnishing), and serve.

About

This chilled tomato soup is perfect on a warm summer day. It's a wonderful light meal when topped with fresh crab (or shrimp) and a good amount of diced pepper, onion, avocado, and cucumber. A traditional gazpacho recipe calls for bread in order to both thicken and to prevent the tomato juice from separating. It is easy to make this dish gluten-free simply by using a plain white gluten-free bread or plain, unseasoned gluten-free crackers (we use Schar Table Crackers).