Gazpacho

Originally posted September 1, 2015

I LOVE gazpacho, but I don’t make it as often as I would like to because tomato season is so short! Well, it is when you live in the Northeast. I don’t know how authentic my recipe is. I’m pretty sure the traditional Spanish version does not have Worcestershire sauce in it, but I add a little bit for flavor anyhow.

My husband was less than enthusiastic about eating chilled soup for dinner. He went into a tirade about his mother letting soup get cold. This went on for about 10 minutes until he sat down and took a sip and proceeded to polish off the whole bowl. I’m guessing it is going to be even better today since it chilled in the fridge overnight. [Note, the red peppers were not next to the green peppers at Stew Leonards, and if you have ever been there you know that reversing direction in that store can be disasterous (it’s very busy). So I bought green peppers, forgetting that it will make my gazpacho not so red. It still tasted good!]

• 2 pounds fresh tomatoes

• 1 medium sweet onion, cut into fourths

• 1 large bell pepper, deseeded and diced

• 1 large cucumber, peeled and diced

• 1 garlic clove, smashed

• 1 jalapeno, diced

• juice of 1 lime

• 1 cup tomato juice

• ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil

• 2 t balsamic vinegar

• 2 t Worcestershire sauce

• 1 dash of hot sauce

• salt and pepper, to taste

Make an X with a paring knife on the bottom of the tomatoes. Drop the tomatoes into the boiling water for 15 seconds, remove and transfer to an ice bath and allow to cool until able to handle, approximately 1 minute. Remove and pat dry. Peel, core and seed the tomatoes. When seeding the tomatoes, place the seeds and pulp into a fine mesh strainer set over a bowl in order to catch the juice. Press as much of the juice through as possible and then add enough bottled tomato juice to bring the total to 1 cup.

Place the tomatoes and juice into a large mixing bowl. Add remaining ingredients. Transfer mixture to a blender and puree for 15 to 20 seconds on high speed or use an immersion blender. Return the pureed mixture to the bowl. Cover and chill for 2 hours and up to overnight.