My Favorite Gazpacho Recipe

April 23, 2012

Temperatures are starting to soar and nothing, not one single thing, beats cold, cold soup for dinner (or in my case lunch AND dinner).

I’ve adapted this recipe from the one I pried from the hands of a chef at the Ann Arbor Golf and Outing Club in Michigan.  It was so worth the groveling I had to do to get it.

Remember folks, I’m never above groveling.

Especially when it comes to food.

This soup, dear friends, is UBER-healthy.  My younger adorable calls it “Spicy Soup” and it inhales it like ice cream and then presents me an empty bowl and says it was too spicy.  Um, obviously not.

The older adorable somehow has caught wind that it is in fact, UBER-healthy and won’t touch it.  So he continues to eat his chicken and 2 cups of peas with a side of broccoli and tomatoes in peace.  Whatever.

More for the rest of us…

You’ll need a big ‘ole stock pot for this – it will make enough for a week.  You’ll also need your food processor (it takes me 1 hour to make this with the food processor and 2 hours cutting everything by hand).  I learned this tip from Rachel Ray: use a bowl with a bag in it for your produce waste.  This saves countless trips back and forth from the waste bin. (Sorry I’m not organized to compost. Yet.)

Here’s the lineup – see below for the full recipe.

Can’t you just see the healthy??

I start with the cans of tomatoes.  When you find these Del Monte tomatoes with jalepenos, just load up.  I now use them in everything: salsa, tostadas, taco night, salmon salsa.  I promise you’ll be hooked.

This is what it looks like after I’ve added the cans of tomatoes, 2 green peppers and 2 red peppers, 1 head of celery, 3 cucumbers, 1 onion, bunch of cilantro, and 1 bunch of scallions.  Sorry I don’t have photos of these individually but I was also managing the adorables and I opted to get the whole thing done quicker.  Just imagine me cutting and processing my little heart out all while keeping the knives out of the curious hands of the adorables…

Since all my produce was completed, I just tied the bag up and threw it all away.  I’m suddenly feeling very guilty that I don’t compost.  I’ll get there, I promise.

Next up: all the seasonings.  Red Wine Vinegar, salt, Garlic salt, Worcestershire Sauce, Tarragon vinegar, White Pepper, and Extra Virgin Olive Oil (see below for measurements)

You’re soooo close.

Now just dump in one bottle of this:

And you now have….

The perfect antidote for a heat wave.

Here’s the Full Recipe:

Gazpacho Heaven

1 big can of Petite Diced Tomatoes

2 cans of Del Monte Petite Cut tomatoes with Zesty Jalepenos

2 green peppers

2 red peppers

1 head of celery

3 peeled and diced cucumbers

1 sweet onion

1 bunch of cilantro or parsley

1 bunch of scallions

1-2 jalepenos (optional – I’d use them if you can’t find the Spicy HOT V8 or the Tomatoes with Jalepenos)

2 Tablespoons of Garlic Salt

6 Tablespoons of Tarragon Vinegar

3/4 cup of Olive Oil

2 Tablespoons of salt

2 teaspoons of White Pepper

2 Tablespoons of Worcestershire Sauce

3/4 cup of Red Wine Vinegar

1 Large bottle of V8 – extra credit if you can find SPICY HOT V8 (load up when you do)

Just dump all of this into your largest stockpot and stir.  It’s at its best after it has been hanging out in your fridge all night.  The Running Man calls this “food sex” and I promised I would never use that word on this sacred website, but there’s no other way to say it.  Cover the adorable’s eyes!

I transfer this to 2 Rubbermaid pitchers – one for my fridge (so much easier to fit in there) and one that I deliver to my friend Wendy (who periodically comes to my house and reorganizes me and claims it’s just as fun for her as Girls Night Out, and seriously, how can I EVER repay that???)

And just in case all this healthiness has you a little turned off, just whip a batch of these Chocolate Oatmeal Bar Cookies and you’ll be good.  Equilibrium reached.  Promise.

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Category: Cookin'
Tags: Best gazpacho ever, hot summer soup |