A Gazpacho With a Cocktail Twist
RECIPES

A Gazpacho With a Cocktail Twist

Ready IN
30 mins
Servings
6
Save
By Lynda Balslev
Updated:

In the heat of summer, it’s best to keep meals light and fresh. Cold soups and leafy salads step up to the main course, providing clean and refreshing nourishment, while taking advantage of the bounty of the garden and farmers markets.

Gazpacho is a satisfying antidote to a warm day. It’s a chilled tomato soup of Spanish origin that’s unfailingly refreshing in the heat. This recipe veers from the traditional blended version and looks to a shrimp cocktail for further inspiration. Instead of pureeing the ingredients, it calls for chopping and dicing the vegetables, which provide wholesome crunch and texture to the soup. (Yes, it takes more time, but it’s worth the effort.) The diced vegetables swim and mingle in the tomato juice, imparting a medley of sweetness, heat, and crunch to every bite—or slurp, as it were.

The soup’s tomato juice base is infused with cocktail sauce ingredients, including horseradish, lemon, and Worcestershire sauce. Poached and chilled shrimp are draped around the rim of the glass, evoking a shrimp cocktail, providing protein and more substance and an excuse to call this soup a main course. It’s a colorful and dramatic bowl, served as a light and vibrant main dish or divided between small glasses as an appetizer.

(Photo by Lynda Balslev for Tastefood)
Photo by Lynda Balslev for Tastefood
A Gazpacho With a Cocktail Twist
Lynda Balslev
Time
30 mins
(Prep 26 minsCook 4 mins)
Servings
6
ingredients
Soup:
  • 4 cups unseasoned tomato juice
  • 1 pint grape or cherry tomatoes, chopped
  • 1 English cucumber, seeded, diced (with skin)
  • 1 small red onion, finely chopped
  • 1 large celery stalk, diced
  • 1 medium red bell pepper, stemmed and seeded, diced
  • 1 small poblano pepper, stemmed and seeded, diced
  • 1 large garlic clove, grated
  • 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
  • 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
  • 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
  • 2 teaspoons drained prepared horseradish, or to taste
  • 1 to 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
  • 1 teaspoon hot sauce, such as Tabasco
  • 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt, or more to taste
  • 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
  • 1/4 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley or cilantro leaves
Shrimp:
  • 1 pound jumbo (16/18) shrimp, peeled and deveined, tails intact
  • Juice of 1/2 lemon
  • 1 medium yellow onion, quartered
  • 1 tablespoon kosher salt
  • 1 teaspoon black peppercorns
  • Celery stalks and lime or lemon wedge, for garnish
Instructions
STEP 1
Combine all the soup ingredients, except the parsley or cilantro, in a large bowl. Stir to blend, and taste for seasoning. Cover the soup and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or up to 6 hours to chill and allow the flavors to develop.
STEP 2
While the soup is chilling, poach the shrimp. Fill a large saucepan with water. Add the lemon juice, onion, salt, and peppercorns. Bring to a boil over high heat. Remove the pan from the heat and add the shrimp. Cover the pot and let stand until the shrimp turn pink and are just opaque through the center, about 4 minutes. Drain the shrimp and rinse under cold water to stop the cooking process. Refrigerate until use.
STEP 3
Remove the gazpacho from the refrigerator 10 to 15 minutes before serving. Stir in the parsley or cilantro and taste again for seasoning. Ladle the soup into glasses or small bowls and drape the shrimp around the edges. Serve garnished with a lemon or lime wedge or a celery stalk.
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Lynda Balslev
Lynda Balslev
Author
Lynda Balslev is a cookbook author, food and travel writer, and recipe developer based in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she lives with her Danish husband, two children, a cat, and a dog. Balslev studied cooking at Le Cordon Bleu Ecole de Cuisine in Paris and worked as a personal chef, culinary instructor, and food writer in Switzerland and Denmark. Copyright 2026 Lynda Balslev. Distributed by Andrews McMeel Syndication.