Bloody Mary Gazpacho recipe ~ this vodka spiked gazpacho is a clever mash-up of your favorite brunch cocktail and a refreshing Spanish chilled soup ~ now you can sip a zesty Bloody Mary out of a bowl! The cool elegance, the flavors, the garnishes ~ all the little extras are in there!
Are you a gazpacho person? I totally am, it’s one of my favorite foods, actually. And if you’re a gazpacho person I figure you’re probably a Bloody Mary person as well; they’re closely allied in foodland. With that in mind, you can probably predict that this mash-up just works. If you’re planning any sort of brunch during the spring and summer months you need to make this.
Here are the players in this boozy gazpacho~
The Bloody Mary cocktail ~
A daytime cocktail invented in the 1920s that started out as a relatively tame combo of tomato juice and vodka. Over the years it expanded to include lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce, horseradish, tabasco, and a dash of celery salt, and is purported to cure a hangover. In recent times it’s served up heavily and ostentatiously garnished.
Classic gazpacho soup ~
An classic Spanish chilled soup made with blended veggies, mostly tomatoes, and flavored with lime, Sherry vinegar, and cilantro. It’s super healthy and refreshing, and can be an appetizer or lunch.
They’re both chilly, bright, and acidic, and today I’ve borrowed the best from the Bloody Mary to infuse into a deliciously unique gazpacho. Genius, if I do say so myself 😉
A great gazpacho starts with great tomatoes, and for a small batch like this you’ll need about a pound. I used Kumato tomatoes, the ones that are an olive green on the outside, and a deep crimson when you cut into them. They’re super sweet heirlooms, and you can find them in many good supermarkets, and Trader Joe’s carries them. The flavor is deep, and the color works well for the look of my Bloody Mary gazpacho. Regular red tomatoes will work, too, the deeper the better.
I love gazpacho so much I’ve even done a multi-hued version with heirloom tomatoes in my Heirloom Tomato Gazpacho. Each tomato has a different color and a different flavor profile, and they make a gorgeous presentation.
Meal prep your spiked gazpacho ~
One of the nice things about gazpacho is that you can make it in the morning and it will just get better as it chills all day, in fact it will need at least 3 or 4 hours to get nice and cold and allow the flavors to mingle. If you’re having people over at the end of a hot day, all you have to do is pull this out of the fridge and wait for the compliments.
My Bloody Mary Gazpacho is pretty authentic, right down to the Old Bay & salt rim on the little glass bowl. It’s little touches like this, along with the colorful garnishes, that make a creative recipe like this work. My garnish design was inspired by the talented Heather Cristo, who made epic Chipotle Bloody Marys over at The Pioneer Woman.
Garnishes for your boozy Bloody Mary Gazpacho
- small inner stalks of celery, leaves on
- tail on shrimp (coated in Old Bay seasoning and grilled till they curl)
- cocktail onions
- green or black olives
- small grape or cherry tomatoes
- pickled sweet and hot peppers (check the olive bar at your supermarket)
- gherkins
- crisp bacon (I didn’t, but that doesn’t mean you can’t)
How to make creative mash-up recipes ~
- First and foremost, make sure your creative adaptation makes sense. There needs to be some basic connection between the two recipes that makes culinary sense. You aren’t going to make a bananas foster mac and cheese. But you might make a Bananas Foster ice cream. In this case the Bloody Mary cocktail and the gazpacho have a base of tomatoes and citrus in common, and they’re both perfect for a spring brunch.
- Figure out which is your base recipe, and which is your influencer recipe, in this case I’m making soup, not a cocktail, so I need to keep that in mind. My final dish has to be pleasing as a soup.
- Decide what can be changed in your base recipe, and what you need to retain to keep the integrity of the dish.
- In this case I adopted the key flavorings of a Bloody Mary: the Worcestershire sauce, the horseradish, the lemon, the celery salt. (I look up a few classic recipes to help me identify the flavors.) Normally in gazpacho I would use lime, sherry vinegar, and cilantro.
- I kept the crushed fresh tomatoes, and the additional finely diced veggies that give gazpacho its wonderful texture.
- I added vodka to my gazpacho, why not? ~ this is where the mashup really gets fun.
- I’m left with a delicious recipe that is a combination of the best of two worlds. If I saw it on a restaurant menu I would order it in a heartbeat.
tvfgi recommends: Weck glass jars

If you’ve come this far you’ll want to continue the Bloody Mary theme and serve your gazpacho in glass bowls, or, like I did, in these little canning jars. Each holds about a cup, perfect for this soup. Oh, and you can use them for canning jams and jellies, too. A good buy, if you ask me.
A set of 6 Weck 741 .25 Liter Mold Jars are currently $32.00 on Amazon Prime.
Bloody Mary Gazpacho
Equipment
- food processor or blender
Ingredients
- 1 lb ripe tomatoes I used the Kumato variety, a deep reddish brown tomato
- 1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil plus more for garnish
- pinch of celery salt
- pinch of freshly cracked black pepper
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1/4 tsp prepared horseradish
- 5-10 dashes of Tabasco sauce or to taste
- 1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
- 1/4 tsp Old Bay seasoning or smoked paprika
- a shot of vodka or to taste
- 2 heaping Tbsp finely minced red onion
- 2 heaping Tbsp finely minced celery
salt rim
- salt
- Old Bay Seasoning
- lime wedge
Garnish
- 4 jumbo shrimp rubbed with Old Bay Seasoning and grilled (use paprika for less heat)
- 2 small inner celery stalks
- toothpicks threaded with cocktail onions hot peppers, pickled peppers, olives, cherry tomatoes, gherkins
Instructions
- Cut the tomatoes in half, or quarters if they're large. Put them in a food processor. Pulse or blend just until the mixture is smooth, with a little texture remaining. This will only take a few seconds. Remove to a bowl.
- Add the remaining ingredients and taste to adjust any of them. Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours.
- On a small plate mix salt with a little Old Bay, and blend well. Run the lime wedge around the rims of your bowls and dip into the salt. Fill each bowl with gazpacho and serve with your choice of garnishes.
24 Comments
Nancy Shaw
April 10, 2021 at 6:33 pmI’m definitely trying this. It looks and sounds fabulous. But Sue, I think I will rename it Drunken Shrimp! LOL!
Sue Moran
April 11, 2021 at 5:07 amLove it 🙂
rach
July 2, 2019 at 9:56 amI’m doing these for my starter “Christmas in July” party in Cape town, south Africa!! Bring it on baby! They will get the party started, I’m going to serve them with parmesan snaps
Sue
July 2, 2019 at 10:10 amEnjoy ~ it sounds like a lot of fun 🙂
Mary Ann | The Beach House Kitchen
May 2, 2019 at 8:01 amI’m so trying this Sue! Bloody Marys are my fave and what a great idea to turn it into a gazpacho! This would be perfect for one of my brunches with my girlfriends!
Sue
May 2, 2019 at 8:06 amI think it would be such fun for a girls brunch, and you can spike it or not according to the occasion!
Rhhonda Brown
May 2, 2019 at 5:59 amI absolutely loved this!!!
Sue
May 2, 2019 at 8:10 amI’m so glad, thanks Rhhonda!
Stacey @ The Sugar Coated Cottag
May 2, 2019 at 5:15 amThis so beautiful and delicous! I cant wait to try this, pinned! Take care 🙂
2pots2cook
May 1, 2019 at 9:41 amGenious it is 🙂
Jennifer | SavorwithJennifer
May 1, 2019 at 9:34 amI am SERIOUSLY sold on this! Two of my favorites together. Love it! And it’s gorgeous!
Sue
May 1, 2019 at 9:50 amI’m so glad I sold you Jennifer! It’s so good, I promise 🙂
Geoffrey at Spoonabilities
May 1, 2019 at 8:04 amThis recipe is so cool. I love the idea, and the pictures are awesome.. especially love the salt and old bay rimmed glasses. Very nice!
Jacqueline Meldrum
May 1, 2019 at 7:49 amOh that sounds tasty. It sounds like it packs a punch, too!
Sue
May 1, 2019 at 7:54 amIt does, although you can moderate the spice to whatever you’re comfortable with.
Marie-Charlotte Chatelain
May 1, 2019 at 7:41 amI cannot believe how delicious and GORGEOUS these bloody mary cocktails look with that perfectly cooked shrimp – a meal really ! These would be perfect for Mother’s Day!
Sue
May 1, 2019 at 7:55 amAbsolutely a meal :))
Katie Crenshaw | A Fork's Tale
May 1, 2019 at 7:33 amOk… this is one of the most BRILLIANT ideas ever!! I LOVE a good Bloody Mary and I love gazpacho. It is so genius to tie the two together. I will be making this for a “ladies lunch” I am hosting soon. Thanks for the great tips and recipe.
Sue
May 1, 2019 at 7:41 amI know, right? It’s absolutely perfect for a ladies lunch 🙂
Tricia | Saving Room for Dessert
May 1, 2019 at 4:17 amThis has my husband’s name all over it. I haven’t had gazpacho in years but that needs to change. These are creatively off the charts Sue – and so darn pretty too!
Sue
May 1, 2019 at 7:03 amIt’s so refreshing when it gets hot and muggy Tricia, but I really love it all year round, hope you make some for your hubby!
angiesrecipes
May 1, 2019 at 3:00 amPerfect for hot summer days! Love those green tomatoes.
Sue
May 1, 2019 at 7:03 amKumatos are my new fave, so sweet, and the crimson color inside is awesome 🙂
Stacy McGrath
September 19, 2019 at 8:27 pmTook the words right out of my mouth. Such an iconic summer drink, at least for me anyway. I just wish I had time to try this out at home. Lately, I’ve resorted to buying all my mixes online. I did find this really nice vegan Bloody Mary a little while back that’s been my current go to. Apparently, they use 100% all natural ingredients without any preservatives. Not to mention, it tastes amazing! Anyway, here’s a link in case anyone’s interested: https://drinklava.com/shop/lava-bloody-mary-mix-1-liter/