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I'm trying to find cold alternatives to hot soup. A friend pointed me to gazpacho. I tried that, and we really liked it.

However, I will be cooking for someone who does not eat cooked tomatoes (ketchup, tomato sauce, and tomato juice), and the recipe I have for the gazpacho is based on tomato juice.

What can I use as a replacement for the tomato juice? I was thinking carrot juice maybe mixed with some lemon juice or vinegar (for the acidity that tomato juice has), but wanted a more "professional" opinion before doing so.

What can I use to replace the tomato juice in gazpacho?

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    If you actually want a cold soup that isn't gazpacho try looking up Vichyssoise it's lovely.
    – vwiggins
    Jul 5, 2012 at 16:02
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    In addition to Peter Taylor's excellent answer, let me point out that there is no need to cook the tomatoes for gazpacho. You can simply puree raw tomatoes, which is how I make my gazpacho. The "recipe" I use is simply tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, onion, garlic, parsley and sometimes celery which are pureed with bread, olive oil, vinegar, salt and paprika. Nothing is cooked.
    – FuzzyChef
    Jul 7, 2012 at 22:11
  • This question has mutated into a list of all possible cold soups. I am deleting all answers which go in this direction, but if it happens again, I may have to close it - not because the question is bad, but because the answers are.
    – rumtscho ♦
    Jul 9, 2012 at 18:59

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To replace the tomato juice your primary concerns will be the flavor component the tomato adds, as well as the textural element. Any numbers of vegetables, steamed then pureed will give you the texture; I would recommend cauliflower for creamy, butternut squash for smooth, or carrot for spicy dishes. In terms of subbing out tomato in gazpacho and trying to retain its character this is not quite possible as it is central to the dish. However going with beet would give you an intense soup, a cold potato cream would also work well, as would any other vegetable; however they would not really yield gazpacho

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  • Interesting. I'm open to variations. I'm not looking specifically for gazpacho - just for a cold soup to serve in the summer :) Maybe I'll try potatoes. Thanks
    – chama
    Jul 5, 2012 at 14:05
  • To mimic the taste balance of tomato juice (not the aroma, of course, just the taste) I would add something sour (e.g. lemon juice) and something umami (e.g. parmesan, worcestershire sauce)
    – rumtscho ♦
    Jul 5, 2012 at 14:59
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According Niki Segnit's The Flavour Thesaurus, strawberries and tomatoes share many of the same flavour compounds so that might an avenue to explore; obviously you might want to increase the vinegar/lemon juice if the stawberries are particularly sweet.

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  • In fact, there are plenty of recipes for strawberry gazpacho floating around.
    – Peter Taylor
    Jul 6, 2012 at 7:20
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Pace @RossHolloway, the word gazpacho covers a wide variety of soups which have evolved from essentially bread soup. (In fact, they're not even all cold soups). In addition to the red gazpachos, which get their colour from tomato and pepper, there are white and green gazpachos (lists by colour in Spanish). You could try to find a recipe in English for ajoblanco, gazpacho blanco cordobés, gazpacho de habas, gazpacho de segadores, gazpacho verde, or gazpacho de cilantro.

Alternatively, since it's typical to serve gazpacho with chopped raw vegetables (tomato, cucumber, onion, pepper) and croutons, you could either prepare your current gazpacho recipe, substituting extra cucumber for the tomato, or make gazpacho de segadores; and then serve with extra raw tomato. That would give you the acidity and some of the flavour.

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