Give Gazpacho A Moroccan Flair With One Sweet Ingredient

The thought of cold soup is off-putting to some, but the dish known as gazpacho can actually be refreshing and filling any day of the year. Despite the dish's Spanish roots, there are many variations with influences from cuisines around the world. Tomatoes and cucumbers are mainstay ingredients in a classic version of gazpacho, but there's a strong case to be made for giving the soup a Moroccan — and slightly sweet — touch with cherries.

Try the ingredient addition with our Moroccan-inspired cherry gazpacho from Tasting Table recipe developer Ryan McPhee. The addition of cherries, which are commonly grown in Morocco, will blend the fruit's sweet and tart flavor with the savory notes from the other ingredients. It also pays homage to Moroccan cuisine's use of stone fruits and the dish known as ajo blanco, a creamy soup that dates back to the Middle Ages. All of the ingredients will be blended together, but a garnish of some of the halved cherries will offer firm bites to contrast with the creamy and cold soup.

There's some preparation involved, so don't expect to just toss the cherries into the blender. It's an easy recipe, but not that easy. First, and perhaps most importantly, pit the cherries if the fruit you bought still has the seeds in the middle. The majority of the pitted cherries are fine to keep whole because they'll join the other ingredients in the blender to make the soup. Be sure to set aside around eight of the cherries for the garnish, and cut those into quarters for bite-sized pieces. You'll add these on the top of each bowl of Moroccan-inspired gazpacho with the likes of pistachios and a drizzle of olive oil if you please.

You can make adjustments if needed to add the sweet-and-tart fruit to your next gazpacho. In our recipe, Ryan McPhee uses Bing cherries, but there are other options. You can use sweet varieties like Rainier and Lambert cherries based on what's available nearby. While fresh is typically best, frozen cherries can work in this soup if you defrost them beforehand to avoid adding water to the pot. It also won't hurt if you want to add a few extra cherries to lean into the fruit's flavor profile. To try another version of the cold soup inspired by a different part of the world, check out our Mexican gazpacho soup recipe that uses vegetables like bell peppers and cucumbers.