Shio Koji Gazpacho

Ingredients:

  • 2 Large Tomatoes (about 0.6-0.7 pounds)

  • 1/4 Sweet Onion

  • 1/2 Sweet Pepper

  • 1 Japanese Cucumber (or 2 Persian Cucumber)

  • 3-inch Celery

  • 1-inch piece Young Ginger (or 1/2-inch piece of ginger)

  • 1-2 tablespoons Shiokoji

  • 1-2 tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil(plus more for serving)

Garnish

  • 5-6 Cherry Tomatoes

  • 1/2 Japanese Cucumber (or 1 Persian Cucumber)

  • 1/4 Sweet Pepper

How to make:

  1. Cut all the vegetables into a large chunk. Place them into the jar of a blender, add 1tablespoon of Shio-koji and 1tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil. Blend them on the slower speed at first, pushing down the vegetables if you need to.

  2. Gradually increase the speed of blender, and blend them for 2-3minutes until completely smooth. Taste it at this point, and if you feel need more salt, add more Shio-koji as you need.

  3. Transfer the soup into a jar and let it sit in the refrigerator for 2-3 hours to overnight.

  4. Prepare the garnish. Cut cherry tomatoes into ½ or ¼ depending on the size of tomatoes. Remove the seed from a cucumber. Cut cucumber and sweet pepper into a ⅛ inch dice.

  5. Toss tomato, cucumber, and sweet pepper with extra virgin olive oil.

  6. Serve soup in a chilled soup bowl, garnish with and drizzle extra virgin olive oil for a final touch.

Tips:

Shio-koji enhances the flavor and sweetness of vegetables because the enzyme breakdown carbs and sugar in vegetables and create Umami flavor while it sits in a fridge. You can add skip ginger and substitute with 1 clove of garlic.

Video:

To view this recipe's instructions in video, visit Eri's Youtube Channel (in Japanese)

(Recipe by Eri Shimizu)