Gazpacho anyone?

I'm sure there are lots of good recipes for Gazpacho floating around, but I'll add one more. If you aren't familiar with it, essentially it is a cold soup (of Spanish origin) with a tomato base combined with fresh diced cucumber, onion, and bell pepper. Gazpacho makes great use of fresh vegetables from the garden and is also a nice cool summer meal, paired nicely with a loaf of crusty bread, slices of good cheese, and perhaps a little fruit. The recipe I'm using emphasizes two things above all: (1) the need for fresh tomatoes and (2) the need to serve it very cold. I heartily agree on both counts. Here's the recipe from Cook's Illustrated:
INGREDIENTS
3 medium ripe tomatoes (recipe says "beefsteak" but others will work) cored and cut into 1/4 inch dice
2 medium bell peppers, stemmed, seeded, and cut into 1/4 inch dice
2 cucumbers, seeded and cut into 1/4 dice
1/2 small sweet onion (e.g. Walla Walla or Vidalia) minced
2 medium garlic cloves, minced or pressed through a garlic press
1/3 cup sherry vinegar
5 cups (40 ounces) tomato juice
Salt and ground black pepper
1 teaspoon hot pepper sauce, e.g. Tabasco (optional)
DIRECTIONS
1. Combine the tomatoes, bell peppers, cucumbers, onion, garlic, vinegar, 2 teaspoons salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper in a large non-reactive bowl. Let stand until vegetables just begin to release their juices, about 5 minutes. Stir in the tomato juice, hot sauce (if using, and I recommend it!) and 6-8 ice cubes if you are trying to cool it quickly. Don't bother with ice cubes if you plan to make ahead and refrigerate for several hours. Cover tightly and refrigerate to blend the flavors, at least 4 hours and up to 2 days.
2. Season with salt and pepper (and I also added finely chopped Italian parsley to the recipe because we have so much of it) and serve cold, discarding any leftover ice cubes if there are any still in the soup.
FINAL NOTE:
Yes, you could pour all of the ingredients into a blender or food processor instead of chopping by hand. The recipe stresses the fact that the blended or food processed versions turn out more like some kind of vegetable juice. The appearance and texture of the soup is better in my opinion doing it the old fashioned way; chopping and then having fresh vegetable "chunks" in a cold, savory tomato base. We had it for dinner last night and it was terrific.

SORRY. I meant to post this on the "Recipe" forum but maybe it will appeal to vegetable gardeners too?

This message was edited Aug 9, 2006 6:33 AM

Thanks Dale:

I was looking for a recipe.

What should the texture be like when finished?

BB

Looks good!

I always use "Mom's Gazpacho" from Epicurious.com

Haven't tried "Mom's Gazpacho" but I'll take a look. Thanks! The texture is, essentially, a thick very cold tomato juice with crispy vegetable chunks in it. Leaving the vegetables diced instead of food processing the whole thing makes for a nice crispy bite (sometimes bell pepper, sometimes cucumber, etc.) with every spoonful. You could make it the first course in a very classy meal or keep it simple (with bread and cheese) like we've done for lunches and light suppers. Always very satisfying to eat food made mostly of vegetables from your own garden, isn't it?

The Cook's Illustrated gazpacho is our favorite although I leave out the bell pepper (can't stand the taste). Use a good tomato juice when making it as this can make all the difference. And the hand chopping really makes a difference. Now if I can just get my tomatoes to ripen!