PW: Gazpacho

I am happy to say that we made BOTH of our final recipes tonight.  Since the sangria is actually waiting 'til tomorrow for us to enjoy, I'll post more on that tomorrow night.

PW:  Gazpacho

Verdict: Yum!  Surprise, surprise, surprise, we like gazpacho!
Cook it again:  Yes!  Although there's very little cooking.
Cost factor:  Really not bad.  "Pantry" items and some fresh produce.

Okay, kids, I am not going to lie.  I was kind-of (and by kind-of, I mean, completely) dreading this recipe.  I had in my head that gazpacho was green and cold and icky.  NOT THE CASE AT ALL!

I read the recipe pretty thoroughly before I committed to actually making this one this month.  And I learned something:  Gazpacho is not cooked soup that is served cold.  Instead, it is a soup that is made and served cold -- more like a blended-up salad, if you will.

Now, why I had it in my head that gazpacho is green, I don't know.  Maybe it typically is?  Anyway, this one is not.  It is a tomato-based soup and really almost looks like a salsa.

The only cooking is to cook up some hard-boiled egg and shrimp for garnishes. The recipe calls for the shrimp to be grilled, but because I forgot to defrost the shrimp, I just grabbed about a dozen or two and boiled 'em up.  (Mick and I were the only ones who'd eat them, anyway, so it was kind-of good that I didn't defrost an entire bag of shrimp!)

You chop up half a red onion, a cucumber, two stalks of celery, two cloves of garlic, three Roma tomatoes, and some zucchini. Because I don't eat zucchini, I just upped the cucumber and celery.  With the exception of the onion and garlic (and Mick bought elephant garlic last time, and I used two cloves of that, so ours was a wee bit garlicky, to say the least -- not that we mind!), you reserve half the veggies and put the rest -- including ALL the onion and garlic -- in a food processor.  You add two cups of tomato juice, some vinegar and sugar, salt and pepper, however much Tabasco you want, some olive oil, and then blend away until it's, well, soupy! 

Now here's some advice if you haven't already made this:  I have a 9-cup food processor, and this mix went over the top of the center piece, which meant in turn that I had to pick up the ENTIRE machine to pour the soup out.  Otherwise, once I picked up the bowl from the processor, the soup would have run down the center opening of the bowl.  Hopefully you know what I am trying to describe here.  The short version: if you don't have a gigantic food processor, mix your soup in a blender; it's easier and not as messy.

Anyway, once you've got your soup in a giant bowl, you add the rest of the veggies and two more cups of tomato juice, and serve with garnishes of avocado, egg, and shrimp.

It was DELICIOUS!  It was a little heavy on the red onion and the garlic, but not enough to make Mick or I think it was anything other than a relief big hit!  We definitely plan to make this again!

YUM!!!!

--Jen

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