Combination Foods:

• Acorda a Alentejana (starch, meat): a galic-bread-egg soup.
• Gaspacho a Alentejana (starch, vegetable): a type of gazpacho soup.
• Figos com Presunto (fruit, meat, fat): fresh figs with smoked cured ham.
• Caldo verde (vegetable, meat, fat): green soup.
• Arroz doce (milk, meat, starch, fat): rice pudding.

A soup similar to Spanich Gazpacho but much thicker. It resembles a dry soup (acorda) and can be served as an appetizer or side dish.

Ingredients:

2 cloves of garlic, peeled
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon crumbled leaf oregano
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 tablespoons cider vinegar
8 large plum tomatoes, peeled, cored, and pureed
1 cup cucumber, peeled, seeded, and diced
2/3 cups sweet red or green pepper, coarsely chopped
3 cups 1-inch cubed day-old Portuguese, French or Italian bread
2 cups ice water (about)

Method:

• With a mortar and pestle, crush the garlic, salt, oregano, and black pepper to paste; blend in olive oil.
• Transfer to a large bowl, mix in vinegar, tomatoes, cucumber, and sweet pepper, and let stand at room temperature for 30 minutes.
• Add the bread and toss well.
• Now, stirring all the while, mix in enough ice water to give the mixture the consistency of very soft mashed potatoes. Let stand at room temperature 30 minutes, then ladle into soup bowls and serve.
• Garnish, if you like, with a little finely minced sweet green and/or red pepper.

Nutritional Analysis (per ~1 cup serving):

Calories	140
Protein	4.2 grams
Fat	3.9 grams
Carbohydrate	23.9 grams
Cholesterol	0 mg
Sodium	505 mg*

*To reduce the sodium content of this recipe, the kosher salt may be eliminated which will reduce the sodium content per serving to 192 mg.