Vuelta a España: Salmorejo (Cold Tomato Soup)

Thursday's Vuelta a España stage brings us to a finish line in Córdoba. Córdoba is a beautiful town featuring lots of gorgeous architecture and a very fascinating history. It is also the birthplace of the soup known as Salmorejo (or "rabbit sauce"). But, I get ahead of myself, let me tell you a little Megabeth and In-House Taste Tester story...

During our visit to Spain few years ago, we had planned ahead and had all our hotel rooms booked except for our night in Córdoba. "No worries, we'll find a place when we get there..." or so we thought. Turns out we were there on the same day as the Immaculada Concepcion. Apparently, folks head into Cordoba to celebrate, so, basically every hotel, B&B, motel, inn and manger were at and beyond capacity.

Mezquita-Catedral (The Great Mosque in Córdoba)

After searching for quite a bit, we finally found a woman who knew a woman who knew a woman who had a room for us to sleep in. We somehow managed to secure this room with our minimal grasp of the Spanish language and her non-existent knowledge of English. She was a kind old lady, inviting us to mass the next morning but we had to decline as we had an early morning train we needed to catch. We settled into a very tiny room with two very tiny rickety twin beds. Then, we realized, after we were lead upstairs to our room she promptly walked downstairs and locked us in for the night. (We think there was another boarder on the same floor as us but were a little too nervous to go out and meet him.) Don't get me wrong, we were grateful for the room but we definitely had one of those, "What did we just get ourselves into?" moments.

Too bad we didn't think ahead and smuggle in some of this tomato soup as the flavors are comforting and the bread blended in makes it oh so filling. If we had some of this soup, we probably would have had a better night's sleep. (But, hey, beggars can't be choosers, and, for those that were wondering, we did find the door unlocked in the morning...)

Outside the place that had the two rickety twin beds...

There seem to be as many versions of this recipe as there are celebrants in Córdoba on Immaculada Concepcion.  It's traditionally served with serrano ham* and hard boiled eggs. But, I decided to turn it up a notch and go vegan with my interpretation of this recipe. Sure you can have gazpacho, but if you're really hungry and want food NOW then check out this salmorejo.

Recipe and details for this delectable soup on Veggin'...

*eating ham seems to be the national pastime of Spain.