I wouldn't keep it a week....it gets a bit "skunky" in that long a time....but 3 or 4 days is fine...in fact it's better....sort of mellows.
But you say "small amount" of cukes celery etc....I think gazpacho needs LOTS of cuke peppers etc.

Teresa,

I use the Barefoot Contessa's recipe it's really good!!!

Gazpacho

Copyright, 1999 The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook

Prep Time: 20 min
Inactive Prep Time: hr min
Cook Time: hr min

Level: Easy

Serves: 4 to 6 servings

Ingredients

* 1 hothouse cucumber, halved and seeded, but not peeled
* 2 red bell peppers, cored and seeded
* 4 plum tomatoes
* 1 red onion
* 3 garlic cloves, minced
* 23 ounces tomato juice (3 cups)
* 1/4 cup white wine vinegar
* 1/4 cup good olive oil
* 1/2 tablespoon kosher salt
* 1 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper

Directions

Roughly chop the cucumbers, bell peppers, tomatoes, and red onions into 1-inch cubes. Put each vegetable separately into a food processor fitted with a steel blade and pulse until it is coarsely chopped. Do not overprocess!

After each vegetable is processed, combine them in a large bowl and add the garlic, tomato juice, vinegar, olive oil, salt, and pepper. Mix well and chill before serving. The longer gazpacho sits, the more the flavors develop.

Linda

Teresa, gazpacho normally uses bread in the mixture so I wouldn't want to keep that more than 2 or 3 days in the fridge.
And yes there are usually more than just a little of chopped bits to put on top.
Here's the recipe I use:

2 thick slices bread (75 g) 2 1/2 oz
1 kilo (2 lbs) ripe tomatoes (4 large)
3 cloves garlic
2 teasp salt
1/4 teasp ground cumin
5 TBS (70 ml) olive oil
5 TBS (70 ml) wine vinegar
2 cups (1/2 liter) water approx.
1 green bell pepper (I added red as well)
1 cucumber
1 onion
1 small tomato
2 sliced toasted bread, cubed into small croutons
1 hard-cooked egg, chopped into small pieces

1. Remove crust from first two bread slices and soak in water (not from the 2 cups water) to cover for 15 minutes.

2. Squeeze out the excess water from the bread and put it in the blender with the tomatoes, garlic, salt and cumin. Process until puréed (process in two or more batches if necessary).

3. With the motor running, add the oil in a slow stream. then add the vinegar. The mixture will thicken and change colour as the oil emulsifies.
Add a little of the water and sieve the mixture.

4. Transfer to a tureen and stir in the water. Chill until serving time.

5. Chop the green (& red) pepper, cucumber, onion and tomato.
Either add them to the chilled gazpacho or

Source: 'The Best of Spanish Cooking'
Janet Mendel

SharonCb

Teresa,

Your idea sounds sensible to me. The "base" of tomatoes and juice, together with the acid ingredients and alcohol, would keep well under refigeration I believe. It's the diced vegetables which would deteriorate more quickly. You add those in nice fresh condition at serving time. Makes sense.

Jim

I like that idea of keeping a base and adding ingredients. I've kept Gazpacho for more than a few days with absolutely no problems. It's very acidic.
Now that I'm officially allergic to onions,I've been pondering making it with shallots or leaving the onion family out of the mix all together.
It's a great diet food and a perfect summer meal with some cold shrimp!

Thanks for your suggestions! I kept the first batch for at least 4 days with the diced veggies in it, but I was afraid it was getting a little watery. And yes, I did have it chock full of the veggies.

Sharon, I want to try the bread in it next, so do you think I could soak the bread, squeeze it dry, then blend it up in the tomato mixture and add the veggies at the same time? I'm going to try using the spicy V8 juice for a little kick. I couldn't really taste the "5 drops" of hot sauce in the first recipe.

Teresa do give a try to adding the bread later. I make it with bread as that's the way I've always seen it done here but I'm sure if you want to store the liquid for a few days you could see what it's like when the bread goes mixed in on the serving day.

Apparently it seems the name 'gazpacho' originated from the word 'caspa', or crumbs, referring to the small pieces of bread used when making it the traditional Spanish way.

Link to Clifford A. Wright on Gazpacho

SharonCb

That's interesting about making it with bread...I never have. But you know, housewives from every culture have always managed to find ways not to waste food!

For myself, if I was making the base of the soup ahead of time that way, I'd probably freeze it in single serving amounts and then I could make as many servings as I wanted at any given time. It wouldn't take long for a single serving to defrost, and then it would stay fresh tasting for sure. Gazpacho has a tendency to become watery tasting even before it spoils...dunno why.

Mmmm...now you went and got me craving gazpacho, and my tomatoes won't be producing for weeks!

The recipe that I found uses diced canned tomatoes and it was pretty darn good and close to what I had at the restaurant. Of course, gazpacho made with fresh tomatoes would be better, but until we have vine-ripened summer tomatoes, this will do for me.

Here is a link that might be useful: Charley's Crab Gazpacho (no crabs were harmed in the making of this soup)

I make it with either stale bread with the crusts cut off or with bread I fry in a little olive oil. Either way I blend the bread into the tomatoes with a processor. I've also never used onions in my gazpacho.

Ah rats. I didn't notice the dates at first and got all excited because I thought Canarybird was posting again :-(