Salmorejo, Andalusia’s Well-Kept Secret
When my wife and I moved to Spain, we quickly realized two things: One, Spaniards are as passionate about their food as they are about everything else. Two, we had *a lot* to learn about Spanish gastronomy.
We arrived here in record heat during the summer months, and our culinary exploration began with one of the few dishes we could stomach in the heat: cold soup.
To those not born or having lived in Spain, the mention of “Spanish cold soup” immediately brings to mind the image of gazpacho — ripe tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, and garlic, blended with a liberal drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, a pinch of sea salt, and sherry vinegar to taste.
A native, however, would be quick to ask: “Which Spanish cold soup do you mean?”
Meet salmorejo—gazpacho’s heartier, lesser-known cousin. It’s the soup you crave when you’re really hungry in the dog days of August.
Like gazpacho, salmorejo comes to us from the sunlit kitchens of Andalusia, the most southern province of Spain bordering Portugal on the west and the British-governed isle of Gibraltar in the south.
Salmorejo is the thick, velvety, comforting Spanish cold soup born from the practical marriage of ripe tomatoes and stale bread.
