Recipe Strawberry Gazpacho with a Lemon, Lime & Coriander Sauce

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

I came across a recipe in the vegetarian times for this recipe. www.vegetariantimes.com/recipes/strawberry-gazpacho-with-lime-cilantro-cream/ .

As always I've adapted the recipe. I'm uncertain that the olive oil in the original recipe is required, so I'm omitting totally.

I've not made much in the way of changes to it, except I'm not using fresh mango, but frozen mango pieces which I already have in the freezer. I also doubled the volume of mango, to add that little extra volume to the soup, so that we have 4 decent sized portions. I'm also using my home grown lemons (which are sweet) with a little lime added to the vegan sour cream, so won't need a much maple syrup.

You could easily use non-dairy/dairy yoghurt instead of a vegan (or dairy) sour cream as well.

The original also includes blending the fresh coriander leaves which I'm not that keen on (I think you'll end up with a red & green mess for the colour), so I've kept that aside and will add it towards the end of the processing and keep it brief. And i don't have any shallots, so I'm using a small onion. Finally, I'm not a huge fan of agave nectar (due to its manufacturing process) so I've swapped it out for maple syrup.

Now reading all of that, I guess I've changed more than I realise!

It definitely tastes of strawberries. I couldn't really taste the mango and there was a definite texture to the soup caused by using the food processor instead of the blender/liquidiser. I'd definitely recommend using the food processor, but be careful with the quantity. I nearly go caught out. This only just fits into my big bowl (Magimix Patisserie), so I'd suggest you blend without the mango, then remove half to another bowl, blend with the mango and mix in the other bowl of you don't have a big bowl for your food processor. We'll definitely make this again, but probably with even less maple syrup, and maybe with silken tofu to add protein to the dish next time round.

Ingredients (serves 4)
 Soup
1kg strawberries, leaves & green stalks removed
300g mango pieces
1 red pepper/capsicum, de-seeded and roughly chopped
1 small onion, roughly chopped
½ packet of fresh coriander
2-3 tbsp lime or lemon juice,
1 tbsp maple syrup (to taste)
Black pepper (to taste)

Lime/Lemon & Coriander Sour Cream
2-3 tbsp finely chopped coriander leaves
1 tub vegan sour cream
2 tbsp lemon or lime juice
1 tbsp maple syrup

Method

1. In a food processor, add all of the ingredients for the soup, except for the coriander, and process. You can make this as smooth as you like. If you want a little texture either use a food processor or hold a little of everything back, blend until smoothish and then add the coriander, plus any reserved ingredients and process briefly. Pre-dicing these reserved ingredients will work better than adding them whole. Taste and adjust seasoning (including sweetness) as needed. Now chill the soup until you're ready to serve.
2. Mix the sour cream ingredients together adjusting the quantities to taste. Chill for about an hour before serving.
3. When ready to serve, ladle the cold soup into bowls and add a small quantity of the lime & coriander sour cream to the centre of each bowl.

You could also drizzle a small quantity of balsamic glaze or balsamic vinegar over the sour cream for a little extra something.

Oops. That was close!

 

[medtran49]

Would you blacken and peel the red bell pepper next time? I make a soup that calls for a fresh red bell that we overall liked, but it had a funky, bitter ish aftertaste. The next time I made it, I peeled the red bell and that taste was gone.

I really like the look of this recipe but I'm not a fan of maple syrup. Could you substitute honey or agave, or can you even taste the maple syrup?

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

Would you blacken and peel the red bell pepper next time? I make a soup that calls for a fresh red bell that we overall liked, but it had a funky, bitter ish aftertaste. The next time I made it, I peeled the red bell and that taste was gone.

I really like the look of this recipe but I'm not a fan of maple syrup. Could you substitute honey or agave, or can you even taste the maple syrup?

With respect to the red pepper, there's no after taste that I could detect, so no I wouldn't bother when I make it again. However it won't affect the end product much if you did.

I'm not a fan of honey, too sweet for me, and I don't like the agave nectar. It's not as healthy as 'advertised' to be, due to the liver being to breakdown the higher levels of fructose (Is agave syrup healthy? | BBC Good Food) It's quite surprising when you look into it, but as i said above, the original recipe did use agave nectar so there's no reason why you couldn't use it. I'm also uncertain that the recipe actually needs added extra sweetness except maybe in the sour cream. Next time I make it, we won't add sweetness to the soup and with my naturally sweet lemons, I'm uncertain we'd need to add any to the cream either.

 

[meals cook]

this seems so yummy