Gazpacho.

 

I love making vegetarian dinners for my family.  It’s important to me to do this a few times a week.  This one, I admit, is super easy when you have a bounty of fresh tomatoes flowing from the garden daily.  I typically make salsa or roast my tomatoes for sauce but I thought it would be a nice night for a cold soup with some crusty bread and tons of flavor!  If you love salsa, you will totally flip over this soup.  Also, great to make the night before or a few hours before dinner and let the flavors mingle while chilling.  Also great for an appetizer idea served in tall, thin glasses as shooters.  You can top this with fresh sliced jalapeños or cold shrimp would be perfection too!  Plus another great thing about this recipe, no heating up your kitchen and preparation is super fast!   Vegan.

Ingredients:

5 garlic cloves, peeled
1 large cucumber, sliced and seeded (or use an English cucumber- if small and thin use 2)
2 bell peppers (red or yellow), diced into larger pieces
1/2 of a red onion, diced
1 jalapeño, diced (seeded if you don’t wish to have the heat)
3 medium tomatoes + 6 smallish roma tomatoes (or use 4-5 medium)
1 handful of fresh cilantro
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon of smoked paprika
2.5 cups of strained tomatoes or tomato juice (I used low sodium)
1/3 cup of champagne vinegar
1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil
2 teaspoons of sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

In a Vitamix, blender or food processor, add your garlic and process until finely chopped.  Then add the cucumber, peppers, onion, tomatoes, cilantro, cumin, paprika and blend until smooth.  Then pour into a large bowl or container, add the remaining ingredients and give a good stir.  Cover and refrigerate for a minimum of 2-4 hours if not longer.  Top with plain Greek yogurt, jalapeños, cold shrimp or croutons.  I serve with a crusty bread.

— Knead to Cook