Canapé ideas: gazpacho with avocado and cucumber salsa

Gazpacho, a chilled soup made with tomatoes aplenty is a wonderfully refreshing starter on a cooker of a day. With a flurry of other fresh ingredients, you’ll be as cool as a cucumber with these shot glass canapés, topped with an avocado and cucumber salsa. Neat, hey?

Ingredients (4 main portions – approx. 18 shots)

For the gazpacho:

6-8 large tomatoes – the most flavourful tomatoes you can get your hands on. If you can only find the watery, not-so-tasty tomatoes, use 2 cans of peeled Italian tomatoes
1 celery stick
½ cucumber
½ red pepper, halved, deseeded
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 small chilli (optional)
1/2 tsp ground cumin
2 Tbsp sugar
Salt and freshly ground black pepper (to taste)

For the avocado and cucumber salsa:

½ cucumber
1 avocado
1 small red chilli
Dash of lemon juice
1 celery stick, to garnish

Method:

1. Place the tomatoes, canned or fresh, red pepper, cucumber, celery, chilli, cumin and garlic in the bowl of a food processor or blender and process until well combined.
2. Taste and season with salt, black pepper and sugar. Process again until smooth.

3. Transfer into a glass bowl or jug.
4. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for 4 hours to chill.

5. Now’s a good time to make your avo and cucumber salsa. Finely chop all your salsa ingredients. Now combine the cucumber, avo and chilli in a small bowl, adding a dash of lemon juice. The lemon prevents the avo in your salsa from going brown. If you didn’t use your whole avo, an avo saver helps to keep it fresh until you next need it. Handy.

6. When your salsa is ready, divide your nicely chilled gazpacho among shot glasses, leaving just less than 1/3 of the glass free for your garnish.
7. Spoon small amounts of your salsa into your chilled soup shots. Add a thin celery stick (or cut them down to size), a final sprinkling of pepper and serve.

Enjoy as a fresh aperitif or alongside a host of other lovely, little canapés.