dish
Gaspacho Alentejano
A chilled bread and tomato soup from the Alentejo — Portugal's answer to gazpacho, served ice-cold in summer.
Gaspacho à alentejana is a cold soup of tomatoes, peppers, cucumber, onion, garlic, stale bread, olive oil, and vinegar, blended or chopped to a rough texture and served ice-cold. Unlike Spanish gazpacho, the Portuguese version is typically chunkier and always includes soaked bread as a thickener, connecting it to the Alentejo tradition of bread-based dishes.
This is summer food at its most practical: refreshing, nourishing, and requiring no cooking in the blistering Alentejo heat. The soup is served in earthenware bowls with ice cubes and garnished with chopped raw vegetables. It exemplifies the Alentejo genius for creating flavourful meals from the simplest ingredients.
