Summer Gazpacho with Prawns, Avocado & Basil

This has to be one of the simplest & most flavour packed summer soups. Served chilled it’s so refreshing on a hot summer’s day. Serve straight up as-is or get fancy like I have here and top it with prawns, avocado, chopped heirloom tomatoes and basil. For vegan, leave off the prawns and perhaps add some olives and for vegetarian, some marinated feta spooned through works so well. On a cooler day, gently warm it with the friction from the Vitamix Ascent blender blades for a delicious warm version.

Makes	2 Servings
Total Time	35 Minutes
Difficulty	Intermediate
Container	Low-Profile 2.0-litre Container

Ingredients

• 3 vine ripened-tomatoes, roughly chopped
• 1 red capsicum, roughly chopped
• 1 large Lebanese cucumber, roughly chopped
• ½ red onion, diced
• 2 clove garlic
• ¼ toasted almonds - optional
• ¼ cup sherry or red wine vinegar
• 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil + extra to drizzle
• Flake sea salt, fresh ground black pepper
• 2 handful basil leaves
• 1 ripe avocado, diced
• ½ punnet cherry heirloom tomatoes, cut into quarters
• 6 cooked tiger prawns, peeled, diced
  To serve, grilled crusty bread

Directions

1. Prepare the ingredients then chill in the fridge for at least 2 hours to make sure they are really cold.
2. Place the prepared tomatoes, capsicums, cucumber, onion, garlic into the Vitamix container, along with the pistachios, vinegar, olive oil and a generous seasoning of salt and pepper.
3. Start the blender on its lowest speed, then quickly increase it to its highest speed. Blend for 60 seconds, using the tamper to press ingredients toward the blades to a smooth silky soup then taste and adjust the seasoning. Chill in the fridge if not serving straight away - just give it a quick blend to emulsify again before serving.
4. Pour the soup between two bowls, spoon over the avocado, heirloom tomatoes and prawns.
5. Season with a little black pepper, drizzle with more olive oil and scatter extra basil. Serve with grilled sourdough.