I've been making gazpacho for years but have hesitated to write down a recipe. I like changing it up each time depending on what veggies I have available (/remember to buy). I only make it about once a year, at the peak of summer when all of the ingredients are at their ripest. Having awesome tomatoes is key. At the suggestion of Joan at One Straw Farm, our CSA purveyor, we've been using a combination of big pink heirloom tomatoes (pink brandywine?) and more garden-variety, tart red tomatoes. The pink brandywine have a sweet, delicate flavor and beautiful color. They keep the soup from becoming too tangy.
One of my favorite things about making gazpacho is how the color changes with every ingredient you add: pink with the tomato juice, green with the cucumber & green pepper, purple-flecked with the red onion, and then back to red with the addition of the tomato chunks. I always have a moment where I'm afraid the red + green +purple soup will turn icky brown, but, defying laws of physics and art, it never does. I wish I had taken photos. Today's project was a messy business, though, and had I tried, my camera may have died a juicy, delicious death.
Gazpacho
(inspired by Joy of Cooking and One Straw Farm)
Find a large bowl or pot in which to mix your soup and a food processor or blender in which to prepare the ingredients. I used a blender today, but I think a food processor is a better choice because you have more control over how fine to chop your ingredients.
Peel and seed tomatoes (about 5 lbs), two cucumbers, two green bell peppers, and 1 jalapeno.
Make or pour 2c tomato juice (I blend one brandywine pink tomato.)
Finely process and add two cucumbers, two green peppers, and 1 jalapeno pepper (I process them to just short of a puree.)
Finely process and add 1 small red onion, a full 1/3c parsley, and 3 cloves garlic.
Coarsely process and add ~4 lbs tomatoes (I used four medium-sized red tomatoes and one large pink)
Add 1/4c EVOO, 1T lemon juice, 1T balsamic vinegar, and 1T red wine vinegar.
Add 1t salt.
Refrigerate for 2+ hours before serving to allow the flavors to blend.
Enjoy!
6 comments:
Sounds delicious ... one day when I have a food processor.
don't you have a wee food processor from mom?
this may be something we need to fix!
Indeed! But the wee variety would not do for this recipe. It looks like it makes enough to send down I-95 to us! and it looks fabulous. How interesting to add so much parsley.
Don't get me a food processor! It will make me feel old and I might not have much kitchen space in the future.
Also, the little guy mom bought me starting making a horrible screeching noise and smelling like burnt tires whenever I used it, so I stopped. The immersion blended, however, is da proverbial bomb.
I need lessons on how to use da bomb. I got one (turquoise cuisinart, cheap) when my latest whizzy died, but it starts acting like some sort of mollusk when it gets near the base of a mug.
a different recipe.
seems worth trying.
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