Cold White Garlic Soup (Ajoblanco)

The name white garlic soup is misleading because the base of the soup is almonds with 1 or 2 garlic cloves. This is a typical creamy cold soup from Córdoba in Andalusia. Like Gazpacho, it is a summer soup and has similar ingredients like bread, garlic, olive oil, vinegar, and grapes or hardboiled eggs to garnish. As I mentioned before, the base of this cold soup is almonds while in gazpacho we use tomatoes, cucumber and green pepper and in salmorejo just tomatoes.

Ingredients:


1/2 pound almonds
1 slice of bread, soaked in water
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/3 cup sherry vinegar (or any other vinegar will work as well)
1 or 2 garlic cloves
7 to 8 cups water, depending on how creamy you want the soup 
salt to taste
grapes to garnish
1 hardboiled egg to garnish (optional)

Start preparing the dish the day before by soaking the almonds in water overnight. In the morning, put the almonds in a blender with the bread (also previously soaked in water), add the garlic, water, oil, vinegar and salt. Blend everything very well. If it is grainy pass the mix thru a strainer or chinoise, helping with a pestle or wooden spoon. Add ice and let the soup cool in a refrigerator until serving. Put some grapes at the bottom of the bowl, pour the soup and add more grapes to garnish. If you prefer, garnish with strawberries or boiled eggs and Spanish ham shavings.