Delicious Spanish Crab Gazpacho Recipe

The best way to stay cool during the hot summer days is to add fresh food items to your everyday meals.

The crab gazpacho will help you with that task while also filling you up with delicious seafood meat.

Making this Spanish soup recipe is super simple, and cooking the crab meat is easier than you might think, so keep scrolling down this article and learn more about it.

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Pssst…!!?? You can’t get enough of Gazpacho? Have a look at my other posts: 

• Watermelon gazpacho

• Cherry gazpacho

• Bloody Mary gazpacho 

Background of the Dish

The best tomato gazpacho was created centuries ago, and it consisted of a mix of tomatoes with stale bread all crushed in a mortar and pestle.

However, it became so popular that people added new ingredients, and it didn’t take too long until people began adding seafood to this fantastic Spanish dish.

That’s how this fantastic crab gazpacho was born, and nowadays, you can find it at any restaurant in Andalusia or make it and enjoy it at home.

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Things You’ll Need for Crab Gazpacho

The gazpacho ingredients for this recipe are tomatoes, fresh crab (replaceable with imitation crab), bell pepper, onion, garlic, and olive oil.

You will also need a food processor or blender to make this crab gazpacho.

Ingredients

• 6 ripe tomatoes
• 1 cucumber
• 1 red bell pepper
• 1 red onion
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1/4 cup (60ml) extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 1 teaspoon salt (adjust to taste)
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• 2 whole crabs (Dungeness or Blue crabs work well, replaceable with imitation crab)
• Fresh basil leaves (optional – for garnish)

How to Make Crab Gazpacho – Step by Step Guide

1. To start making the best crab soup recipe you have to fill a large pot with water and bring it to a boil. Season the boiling water with a generous amount of salt (it won’t make it salty, it works similarly to pasta water).

2. Now place the live crabs into the pot and cook for 10 to 15 minutes, depending on their size. The crabs should get a bright red color and the shells should easily peel away when done. Remove the crabs from the pot and set them aside to cool.

3. Once the crabs have cooled, remove the legs and claws. Crack the shells using a crab cracker or the back of a heavy knife to access the meat inside. 

4. Then, remove the meat from the shells and discard any shell fragments. Use your fingers or a small fork to pick out the meat from the body cavity. Break the larger pieces into smaller, bite-sized chunks. Set the crab meat aside. You can skip these steps if you use imitation crab sticks.

5. After that, wash the tomatoes, cucumber, and red bell pepper. Remove the core from the tomatoes and cut them into quarters. 

6. Also, peel the cucumber and cut it into chunks. Then, remove the stem and seeds from the red bell pepper, and roughly chop it. 

7. For the next step in this crab gazpacho recipe, peel and roughly chop the red onion. Also, peel the garlic.

8. Now, place the tomatoes, cucumber, red bell pepper, red onion, and garlic cloves in a blender or food processor. Blend until you get a smooth and well-combined cold Spanish soup.

9. Then, add the olive oil, red wine vinegar, salt, black pepper, and paprika to the blender with the vegetable mix. Blend again until everything is well incorporated and the grab gazpacho has a smooth consistency. Taste and adjust the seasoning if needed.

10. Next, transfer the gazpacho to a large bowl or pitcher and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or until thoroughly chilled. This allows the flavors to meld together and the gazpacho to develop its refreshing taste.

11. Finally, stir the Spanish chilled before serving, then pour it into small bowls or deep plates. Top each portion with a generous amount of shredded crab meat. 

12. As an optional step, you can garnish with fresh basil leaves to add more flavor and a better presentation for your Spanish cold tomato soup.

Substitution of Ingredients

If you don’t have all of the ingredients but you still want to make this Spanish cold tomato soup, there are a few changes that you can make.

For example, instead of fresh crab, you can buy crab meat at the fish shop, or imitation crab at almost any store (this is a time-saver too).

The best tomatoes for gazpacho are plum or pear, but you can make this crab gazpacho with heirloom tomatoes too.

When it comes to vegetables, the cold Andalusian soup works with almost any vegetable that you can eat raw, so feel free to use what you have on hand.

Besides that, you can mix it with other Spanish cold soups, like the yellow tomato gazpacho or the carrot gazpacho, cold shrimp soup, and add those vegetables to the mix.

Tips on Serving Crab Gazpacho

One thing that we love about the crab gazpacho is that it is the perfect stand-alone dish for lunch, dinner, or any time of the day.

Gazpacho with crab is mostly known as a main dish, but you can serve it as tapas or appetizer if you serve it in smaller portions.

As with any Andalusian cold tomato soup, it goes really well with shredded parmesan cheese or topped with manchego cheese cubes.

Instead of having a salad bar on your next get-together, you can make other Andalusian gazpachos like the heirloom tomato gazpacho, cucumber gazpacho, or gazpacho with shrimp and serve them with your crab gazpacho.

If you loved this type of gazpacho combination, try the bacalao gazpacho or the seafood gazpacho for they are equally tasty and nutritious.

How to Store Crab Gazpacho

What makes this Spanish summer soup stand out is how fresh it is, which also means that it is intended to be served that way and you can’t store it for too long.

Still, you can store this chilled crab soup for up to 3 days in the fridge, and place it in a large container covered with plastic wrap or with a lid.

It is better to store the crab gazpacho with plastic wrap touching the top of the cold soup, that way it won’t form a thick crust there.

Recipe Card: Crab Gazpacho

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