Gazpacho

For those of you who know me, know that tomatoes are not exactly my favorite food.  I have tried and tried to like fresh tomatoes, but there’s just something about them that I just don’t care for.  That being said, I love tomato products, and a cooked tomato is in my opinion a great basic ingredient!  So when a friend of our invited us to her house, a few years ago, to tour her garden and have an early afternoon lunch, what I remember the most about the meal was the delicious Gazpacho Soup, a cold tomato based soup, packed full of garden fresh vegetable.

This is a great recipe for those of you who have a garden or like to visit farmers markets which are “in season” right now.  It's July 7th and in the Northwest we are 2 days into summer, and with the warm weather most of the country is experiencing, this is a great cool down dinner.  The longer it sits the better it gets.

Gazpacho

      2 chopped tomatoes (I used purple heirloom cherry tomatoes)
      1 chopped green pepper
      1 chopped red pepper
      4 chopped celery stalks, with leaves
      1/2 of a English cucumber, chopped
      1 cup chopped onion (I used red onion)
      1/2 cup chopped green onion (only the green part)
      3 minced garlic cloves
      1/2 of a sprig of cilantro, chopped
      2 tbsp parsley
      3 tbsp red wine vinegar
      2 tbsp olive oil
      1  tsp Worcestershire
      1 tsp tabasco
      2 cups tomato juice
      pepper

Place all chopped vegetables in large bowl. Wisk together vinegar, oil, worcestershire, tabasco, pepper and tomato juice and pour over vegetables.  Let sit overnight in fridge and adjust seasoning in morning.

I like to add additional Worcestershire and tabasco for a bit more spice.

Chef's note: I DON'T measure, so the amount are the original amounts, I altered, as using 1/2 a cucumber, just doesn't work for me, I used the whole one!

Oh, and yeah I served it with our California Grilled Chicken Sandwich.  YUMMY!