This Avocado Gazpacho Recipe Has Amazing Benefits for Your Skin

This delicious, easy recipe for avocado gazpacho comes from celebrity chef Mychael Chang. Better yet, the ingredients pack major benefits for your skin and greater health. Traditional tomato gazpachos are always a great cooling, healthy dish—but there’s more to cold soups than just tomatoes. Enter: a gazpacho soup that uses a surprising combination of avocado and green grapes. The result? A delightfully complex cold soup to help you beat the heat and delight your tastebuds. As a bonus, it’s plant-based, packed with nutrients, and incredibly beneficial for your skin. Since it’s a surefire crowd-pleaser, we suggest impressing your friends with it at your next weekend get-together. You can also turn to this easy gazpacho recipe if you’re looking for a light meal on warm nights.

Ingredient Highlights

“This avocado and green grape gazpacho is a nice alternative to traditional gazpacho, which is tomato and pepper-based,” Mychael explains. “If you’re trying to avoid nightshade vegetables, this is a fantastic, unique gazpacho to try.”

It brings in the surprising element of green grapes for slight sweetness in this otherwise savory recipe, as well as garlic and sweet onion for a peppery bite. Finally, white vinegar and mint brighten things up.

As far as the nutritional benefits go, this easy gazpacho recipe features:

• a nice balance of healthy fats to hydrate skin
• antioxidants to fight free radicals + premature signs of aging

Here’s a closer look at some of the benefits of its star ingredients.

Avocado

Avocados are rich in healthy fats and antioxidants, including vitamin C. Both of these nutrients are beneficial not only for your overall health, but also for your skin. In a 2010 study, Japanese women who increased their intake of both types of nutrients experienced increased skin elasticity. A higher intake of green produce in general also led to fewer instances of wrinkles. Other research shows that the polyhydroxylated fatty alcohols (PFAs) extracted from avocados can significantly reduce UV damage. Sun damage is linked to a variety of skin concerns, including but not limited to wrinkles, fine lines, and hyperpigmentation. This feature makes avocados a worthy addition to your pro-aging, sun-protective diet plan.

Grapes

Green grapes also play a vital role in this gazpacho recipe. Grapes have many nutritional features—yet arguably, the greatest one involves their rich antioxidant content. (If you’ve ever heard that wine is healthy, you can credit this feature for the claim. Of course, it’s still important to drink alcohol in moderation.) As noted above, antioxidants help combat free radicals, an abundance of which contribute to oxidative stress in the form of skin damage and several other health risks. Grapes are particularly rich in resveratrol, a type of antioxidant in the polyphenol category. The skin benefits of resveratrol include the compound’s ability to:

• help stimulate collagen production
• offer antioxidant + antibacterial properties

Note: The skin and seeds of grapes pack the highest concentration of antioxidants, so be sure to eat (or blend) them in full.

Cucumbers

Cucumbers are another primary staple in this avocado gazpacho soup. They consist of up to 95 percent water, making them a natural fit for an easy recipe to hydrate your skin and body alike. Cucumbers also boast antioxidant properties. And similar to avocados, they provide soothing effects from excess sun exposure and other sources of skin irritation.