Ajo Blanco – Chilled Almond Soup

My friend Neville, who has a house in Andalusia surrounded by almond trees, gave me this supremely wonderful recipe for Chilled Almond Soup, generously laced with garlic, that is made by the locals who live there. You can make it up to five days ahead – as Neville says, it goes on improving in flavour.

• Add to favourites
• Add to shopping list
• Email a friend
• Print

  Serves 4

Ingredients
7 oz (200 g) unblanched almonds (preferably Spanish almonds – never ready-blanched for this recipe)
7 fl oz (200 ml) Spanish olive oil
3 cloves garlic, peeled
1 dessertspoon sherry vinegar
2 level teaspoons salt, or more, to taste
To serve:
8 ice cubes
4 oz (110 g) black grapes, deseeded and halved
1 dessert apple, peeled, cored and thinly sliced

Conversions
Need help with conversions?

Equipment
You will also need a blender and four chilled soup bowls.

This recipe appears in How to Cook Book Three, The Delia Collection: Soup and Delia's Vegetarian Collection.

Method

First you need to blanch the almonds. To do this, place them in a heatproof bowl, pour in enough boiling water to cover and leave them aside for 3-4 minutes. Then drain them in a colander and simply squeeze the nuts out of their skins into the bowl.

After that, put the almonds in the blender and pour in the olive oil. (The oil should just cover the almonds – if it doesn’t, add a little more.) Then, add the garlic, vinegar and salt and liquidise until everything is smooth. Now, with the motor still running, slowly add about 12 fl oz (340 ml) cold water.

Pour the soup into a large bowl and if it seems too thick, add a little more water. Then cover the bowl with clingfilm and keep it well chilled until you’re ready to serve. Just before serving, stir in the ice cubes and ladle the soup into the chilled bowls. Garnish with the grapes and apple slices.

• Bookmark with:
• Delicious
• Digg
• Facebook
• StumbleUpon

Related recipes

---

 For the prunes:

Prune, Apple and Armagnac Cake with Almond Streusel Topping

This is a cake that borders on being a dessert, and would be my choice for a celebration supper party, served warm with crème fraîche. If you are not a lover of Armagnac, the prunes also taste good served with port or amaretto liqueur.

 

 

 Makes 18

Chocolate Almond Crunchies

Although you can now buy really good-quality biscuits and American cookies, making them at home still has the edge, and as biscuits are so easy, it's a very good place to start if you are a beginner in home baking. I've used 'adult' chocolate in thes

 

 

 Serves 6-8

Apple and Almond Crumble

Crumble has to be one of the best desserts going, and it's so quick and easy to make, especially if you use a food processor to make the topping. This is a true classic…