Sunday, September 6, 2015

Watermelon gazpacho

This gazpacho calls for two batches of vegetables, each processed differently - one batch finely chopped, the other pureed.  I used the food processor for the first batch and the blender for the second.  Everything needed to be roughly chopped first.

Ingredients:
1 red onion - one half for each batch
2 red bell peppers, one for each batch
1 big or 2 smaller cucumbers, peeled and seeded, half for each batch
1/2 of a jalapeno, again divided equally - increase if you want more kick

 One half of each of the above ("batch one") goes into the food processor to be finely chopped, not puréed.

 The rest of the above vegetables, plus the following (collectively, "batch two"), will all go into the blender to be puréed:  2 cups tomatoes, 6 to 7 cups of chopped seedless watermelon , and 1/4 cup cilantro.  A watermelon the size of a medium big cantaloupe will give you a good amount.

 My blender works better with diverse textures, so I'm jumbled up all the chop of batch two and threw it in. (It did not all fit at once.)  Once all of these were puréed, I added 1/4 cup of red wine vinegar , and then another tablespoon.  I used Brandywine tomatoes and a fairly sweet watermelon , and, even so, the vinegar just seemed to make it sweeter.

 Then process and mix in the finely chopped vegetables from batch one.  Chill and serve, garnished with sour cream or diced avocado .

 The recipe I had did not call for bread , which I thought was the sine qua non of gazpacho.  I thought that the results of the above needed more fortitude. I had on hand about 2 tablespoons of crumbs from toasted whole wheat pita, so I added that, and I think that more breadcrumbs would be welcome.  The recipe also calls for salt and 1 tablespoon olive oil.

1 comment:

Suzanne said...

Ate the rest of this tonight - yum!! Loved the unexpected sweetness. I would probably add jalapeno if I were to make it.