Raw Gazpacho

  Raw Gazpacho – Cold Summer Soup for Hot Summer Nights or What Do I Do With All These Tomatoes? I have a very generous father-in-law/farmer who has done well this year with his tomatoes and I am now coming up with ways to use them (look for future posts on sun-drying, raw V-8 and other juice combinations) I love gazpacho because it is very easy to make, most people really like it, and it’s raw by nature, so you can usually get people who aren’t into raw to at least try it. I have made this hundreds of times, but never wrote down the proportions, so now that I have people actually making these recipes, I thought I ought to measure, at least once. Ingredients

• 4 Large Ripe Tomatoes –  washed and cored. I like the seeds
• 1 large cucumber, peeled or unpeeled, your choice
• 1 red pepper, seeded
• 3 Limes, squeezed
• 1 Serrano chili, seeded (You can do Jalapeno if you insist)
• 1/2 c Cilantro, chopped
• 3/4 teaspoon Sea Salt or to taste
• 1/4 c extra virgin olive oil

Here’s the easy part. Put all of this into the Vitamix and blend for about 3 minutes. Some people like it more chunky, so do 2 min, some like it more pureed, go for 4 minutes. Chill before serving and garnish with Avocado Creme (recipe below), a sprig of Cilantro and a dusting of Chipolte Chili powder Serves 2 people twice, 4 people once, 8 people a starter serving, etc Avocado Creme garnish

• 1 ripe Avocado, peeled and pitted, cubed
• 2 Tablespoons Extra Virgin olive oil
• 1/8 teaspoon Chipolte Chili powder
• 6-8 Tablespoons coconut water

Using an immersion (stick) blender, or Cuisinart, blend until it is the consistency of a thick soup – add the coconut water to thin as you go – not too much. When it is extremely creamy, place into a small squeeze bottle with a drizzle tip and use it to garnish. If you don’t have such a bottle (get one next weekend) or very carefully drizzle the creme with a spoon – in this case, make it a little bit runnier. Note: most gazpacho has onions and/or garlic in it – if you like these, feel free to add them – I can’t do them raw at all and omit them. Your call. Til we eat again… ps. If you google Raw Gazpacho Recipe you get 244,000 results – ok, now it’s plus 1