We’re deep into summer now. There were mounds of fat, juicy heirloom tomatoes everywhere, piles of peaches, nectarines and every stone fruit variety California comes out with every year literally. If you’re Californian you know what I mean.
My humble garden is flaunting its best in-spite of the unrelenting the 100° heat. We have a bumper crop of early girl tomatoes, hibachi eggplants, Thai chillies, summer squashes, poblanos and the basil you can smell it from a mile away. That my friends is smell is summer in a nutshell.
I left about half a dozen beautiful peaches to ripen on my countertop for a couple of days. By the third day, they were so soft to the touch, just begging to be eaten I thought my fingers would puncture right through the pulpy skin. I took one outside in my garden, coffee in one hand peach in the other. I stood over the patio dining table, closed my eyes and my teeth barely touched the fruit the juice dripped down my chin and forearm. I totally forgot my coffee, I was in peach heaven. The other five were too ripe so they went into our gazpacho. The recipe starts the previous day for the ingredients to marinate, which is a trick I learnt from Food and Wine Magazine, total genius, the rest is fairly simple. The crostini is a little extra to fill me up and totally optional. Hope you give it a try.
Chilled Peach Gazpacho with Goat Cheese Crostini
Ingredients
- 4-5 medium ripe peaches 4 chopped, slice one for garnish
- 1 yellow bell pepper chopped
- 2 Persian cucumber chopped
- ¼ cup white balsamic vinegar
- ¼-⅓ cup e.v olive oil as needed for the toast
- ½ cup fresh goat cheese, divided
- 1 medium clove garlic
- ½ cup chilled water as needed or more
- 1 tsp fresh thyme leaves
- pinch of chili flakes
- sea salt and black pepper as needed
- 2 tbsp honey or maple syrup
- fresh basil leaves to garnish
- cracked black pepper to garnish
- 4-6 slices thick slices of wholewheat rustic bread or baguette or bread of your choice
Instructions
- In a bowl, toss the 4 chopped peaches, chopped cucumber, chopped yellow bell pepper, salt and chopped garlic. Add the ½ the honey, ½ the goat cheese, thyme, 1/4 cup of white balsamic vinegar and ½ the olive oil. Mix well, cover and refrigerate overnight.
- Transfer the marinated peach mix to a blender and purée. Add ¼ cup of water and puree until very smooth and creamy; add more water if the soup seems too thick. Season with salt and the remaining vinegar. Refrigerate the soup until chilled, about 1 hour.
- Meanwhile, brush 4-6 bread slices with the remaining olive oil and toast until golden and toasted on both sides. Spread the remaining goat cheese evenly on 4 slices of bread. Place 2-3 slices of peach on each toast, sprinkle a little chili flakes and thin drizzle of honey if desired.
- Pour the peach soup into shallow bowls, place the toasted peach in each bowl. Drizzle lightly with olive oil for extra richness, season with black pepper. Best enjoyed chilled.
This was delicious! I subbed apple cider vinegar for the white balsamic since it was on hand. Perfect for a hot summer day.
Hi Lisa, Im so happy you liked it, white balsamic is a great idea it pairs well with peaches. Thank you for stopping by.
Amazing! Loved it! I was a little confused with the instructions though. You call for a 1/4 cup of white balsamic in the ingredient list and say to add that 1/4 cup before putting it in the fridge overnight. You then say to purée it, adding the remaining vinegar. There is no remaining vinegar if you add it all initially. No worries though, I loved it!
This looks so good! What a great combination of flavors!