There is truly nothing like summer vegetables, especially tomatoes. That’s why I love gazpacho–it celebrates veggies in their raw form and tastes like summer in a bowl.
This recipe is absolutely delicious and pretty simple. It utilizes a food processor, which makes it super easy too. Honestly, the toughest part is waiting for it to chill.
It’s also highly customizable. You can truly throw in whatever you have on hand. Tomatoes are non-negotiable, but almost everything else is. If you don’t like onion, nix it. No peppers? NBD. You can swap lime for lemon, or parsley for basil. You do you.
Gazpacho
Ingredients:
- 1 1/2 – 2 lb tomatoes (I used about 8 large tomatoes)
- 1 large cucumber
- 1 red bell pepper
- 1 fresh cayenne pepper (omit if you don’t like heat)
- 1 clove garlic
- 1 shallot
- 2 tsp balsamic vinegar
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp ground pepper
- 1/2 tsp cumin
- Juice from 1 lemon
- 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
- Fresh basil to taste (and any other fresh herbs)
Method:
Bring a large pot of water to boil. Cut an “X” into the bottom of each tomato with a paring knife, then drop each tomato into the boiling water for about 20 seconds. Remove and immediately plunge into an ice water bath. Once cool enough to handle, peel the skin off of each tomato.
Next, core and remove seeds from the tomatoes. I do this with my hands, but you can use a spoon too. After coring, cut each tomato in half and, over a sieve that’s over a large bowl, rip into the sections of the tomato with your hands (or a spoon) and scoop all of the seeds out and into the sieve. The tomato will look demolished, but it doesn’t matter because you are blending it up. After seeding each tomato, place into a food processor. Make sure to push all of the juice through the sieve from the seeds, then pour the juice that has drained into the bowl, into the food processor.
To the food processor, add in the shallot, garlic clove, cayenne pepper, 1/2 the cucumber, 1/2 the red pepper, lemon, balsamic, evoo and spices. Blend until pureed and smooth. Finely chop the remaining halves of cucumber and red pepper and add into the gazpacho. Let chill in fridge for at least 2 hours.
Once ready to serve, pour into bowl and top with fresh tomatoes and basil.
Enjoy!
