Chilled Almond Soup ~ Spain

[Twitchin Kitten]

I bought a cookbook with nothing but soups looking for some interesting recipes. I wanted to stray from the traditional and ordinary and the Middle Eastern. Although the Mid East has some interesting cold and hot soups, I knew there was much, much more to be had! So here goes with some recipes from this book!

*Make sure you use a food processor for this recipe. Pounding all the ingredients by hand can be time consuming and tiresome! The food processor will make this task fast and easy!

Chilled Almond Soup

serves 6

Ingredients:

4 oz fresh white bread
3 cu cold water
1 cu blanched almonds
2 cloves garlic, sliced
5 Tbsp olive oil
1 1/2 Tbsp sherry vinegar
salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

For the garnish:

toasted slivered almonds
seedless green and black (red) grapes, halved and peeled

Break the bread into a large bowl and pour 2/3 cup of the water on top. Leave to stand for 5 minutes.

Put the almonds and garlic in a food processor or blender and process until finely ground. Blend in the soaked bread.

Gradually add the oil until the mixture forms a smooth paste. Add the sherry vinegar and remaining cold water and process until smooth.

Transfer to a bowl and season with salt and pepper, adding a little more water if the soup is too thick. Chill for at least 3 hours.

Server with the toasted almonds and grapes scattered on top.