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13
Sep
I finished up my wealth of tomatoes on Sunday by throwing together an easy gazpacho. Would you believe that before this year, I’d never eaten (or made) gazpacho? I hadn’t. Not sure why — it just wasn’t on the agenda.
I checked out a number of recipes before writing this one. Thank goodness everyone in the blogosphere is busy with tomato cooking now (and a lot are making gazpacho too) because it gave me a good selection of recipes to learn from. I also checked out a bunch of recipes from books in my personal library. As usual, I couldn’t find one that met all of my needs so I just started from scratch.
Anyway, here’s the skinny on gazpacho: it’s really refreshing. I wish I would have made it sooner as it would have been a perfect hot-summer-night dinner on the porch. Next year! The texture is somewhat like salsa, without the bite. Definitely good. Definitely worth it. Definitely a keeper.
The best part? It’s super healthy – it’s practically all raw vegetables (and fruits, I guess) so it’s just a powerhouse of nutrients. Yay for healthiness!
yields 4-6 servings
1/8 cup balsamic vinegar
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp sea salt (I used a sea salt/lavender blend from Williams-Sonoma)
4 ripe red tomatoes, diced
1/2 cucumber, peeled and diced
1/2 medium red onion, diced
1/2 red pepper, diced
1/2 green pepper, diced
1 tsp dried Italian herbs
1/8 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp lemon juice
2-3 shakes Louisiana hot sauce
fresh ground pepper, to taste
Pour balsamic vinegar in to a large mixing bowl and set aside.
In the bowl of your food processor, combine the sea salt and garlic. Pulse for 5-10 seconds. Add tomatoes (I did this in two batches since I use a mini food processor.). Pulse to desired consistency. Pour tomatoes into the bowl with the vinegar.
Combine the cucumber and red onion in the food processor (no need to clean between uses). Pulse to desired consistency. Pour cucumbers and red onion into the reserved bowl.
Combine the red and green pepper in the food processor. Pulse to the desired consistency. Add to the reserved bowl.
Pour Italian seasonings, olive oil, lemon juice, hot sauce and pepper into the bowl. Mix well.
Place the gazpacho in a sealed container and refrigerate for at least 12 hours before serving.
- Published by sarah in: Recipes soup summer vegetables vegetarian
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One Response to “Making Gazpacho”
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