I don’t think anyone needs me to give them yet another recipe for gazpacho. It’s so simple you pretty much can’t go wrong and the basic recipe is flexible enough that you can take some liberties with ingredients and preparation. Bread or no bread; seeded tomatoes or seed-ful tomatoes; red, white or green onion – the choice is yours. The only two essentials: fresh ingredients and chill before serving.

As with other Spanish cold soups such as white garlic and salmorejo, gazpacho is such a classic and good as it is. There’s not much I could do to put a twist on it and make it my own. But one thing I can do without inciting a riot is play around with the garnishes.

So last week I was watching Masterchef Canada, as I do every Monday as soon as I can get it on streaming, and was amazed to see a competitor make caviar from balsamic vinegar. Like most things that I see on tv, I had to try it right away.

A little bit of googling led me to this instructional video demonstrating how super easy it is to make balsamic caviar. Finally, I have something interesting and unique to put my twist on gazpacho!

To make balsamic caviar all you need is three things: balsamic vinegar, agar agar and oil. If you use agar agar powder, you can simply dissolve it into the vinegar.

If, like me, you use agar agar strings/threads, then dissolve it first in boiling water before mixing it though warmed vinegar. I strongly recommend using agar strings because they’re about one seventh the price of powder.

Now you need something to make drops. I went to the dollar store and found a pastry syringe, but any kind of squeeze bottle with a small tip will work. It took a bit of practice to get a good dropping technique, but I eventually realized that it’s better to go slow.

One drop will make the tiny caviar-sized balls you see in the pictures. Three drops in the same place (quickly before the ball sinks into the oil) will make a pearl-sized ball.