Oh, do I have a recipe for you today. This is the most delicious chunky gazpacho you have ever had in your life. We will try a smooth gazpacho in the weeks and months to come. But today, we are having a most delicious and rustic chunky gazpacho. So let's get right to it.
Our ingredient list (from top left going clockwise): Vine ripened tomatoes, green pepper, green onion (scallions), cucumber, celery, jalapeno pepper and garlic. Additionally you will need a large bottle of V8, two lemons, salt and pepper.
Four tomatoes - Get the freshest and most ripe tomatoes you can find. These will need to be seeded before starting your soup. In fact, all of the ingredients containing seeds will need to have the seeds removed.
One bell pepper - Quarter the pepper and remove all the seeds.
Eight scallions - Trim scallions and cut in to one inch pieces.
Two cucumbers - Peel cucumbers and cut in half lengthwise. Then scoop out the seeds using a regular teaspoon or a melon baller.
Two stalks celery - Trim off bottoms near the root and chop in to one inch pieces.
One small jalapeno pepper and two cloves of garlic. Cut the jalapeno in half lengthwise and remove the seeds. Peel garlic cloves.
We are using a Cuisinart food processor to prepare the soup. First step is to add the jalapeno pepper and garlic to the bowl of the food processor fitted with the metal blade and process until finely chopped.
Next, add scallion and celery to the bowl.
On top of the scallion and celery, add the quartered green bell pepper.
Pulse to a smooth consistency, then turn this mixture into a large mixing bowl.
Next, with the bowl of our food processor empty, we will start processing the final ingredients. Place one half of the seeded tomatoes in the food processor and pulse until coarsely chopped.
Add the chopped tomatoes to the mixing bowl with the previous ingredients. Puree the remaining tomatoes until smooth, about one minute.
With the machine still running with the second half of the tomatoes that are pureed, pour in one-half cup of V8. We used original V8, but if you like, you could easily substitute the hot and spicy version or the low sodium version.
Add the pureed tomatoes and V8 combination to the mixing bowl. Then add an additional three and one half cups of V8 to the mixing bowl. So the total amount of V8 is four cups. Give this a good stir.
Time to move on to the last couple ingredients. The first of those ingredients is the cucumber. We switched to the slicing attachment for this part of the prep.
As discussed, the cucumbers were peeled, sliced in half lengthwise, and then seeded. We found that we did not need to use the plunger attachment. Just drop the cucumber slice into the feeding tube and turn on the machine. Gravity took them through.
We ended up with a bowl of perfectly sliced crescent shaped cucumber.
Into the mixing bowl with the cucumber and a nice, thorough stir with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula.
Finally, it was time to add the lemon juice, which really is the ingredient which really brings this all together. Four tablespoons is what you will need. You should be able to get that from two lemons, sliced in half, and juiced on your choice of juicer. We poured in the lemon juice and added two teaspoons salt (just regular table salt; nothing fancy), and one-half teaspoon coarse black pepper. A final stir and we had gazpacho.
Here is our cold gazpacho with a smallish dollop of full cream sour cream. Don't use reduced fat sour cream in this. I would say about one tablespoon will do for a standard size soup/cereal bowl.
In short - this is incredible. Positively incredible. There are cooked versions of gazpacho and slightly cooked versions and then uncooked versions. I prefer the uncooked version. This is delicious at room temperature, but even better chilled in the refrigerator. I served it to myself at room temperature, but I would only serve it chilled to guests.
I hope you will make our October Chunky gazpacho soon. I know you will love it.
Our ingredient list (from top left going clockwise): Vine ripened tomatoes, green pepper, green onion (scallions), cucumber, celery, jalapeno pepper and garlic. Additionally you will need a large bottle of V8, two lemons, salt and pepper.
Four tomatoes - Get the freshest and most ripe tomatoes you can find. These will need to be seeded before starting your soup. In fact, all of the ingredients containing seeds will need to have the seeds removed.
One bell pepper - Quarter the pepper and remove all the seeds.
Eight scallions - Trim scallions and cut in to one inch pieces.
Two cucumbers - Peel cucumbers and cut in half lengthwise. Then scoop out the seeds using a regular teaspoon or a melon baller.
Two stalks celery - Trim off bottoms near the root and chop in to one inch pieces.
One small jalapeno pepper and two cloves of garlic. Cut the jalapeno in half lengthwise and remove the seeds. Peel garlic cloves.
We are using a Cuisinart food processor to prepare the soup. First step is to add the jalapeno pepper and garlic to the bowl of the food processor fitted with the metal blade and process until finely chopped.
Next, add scallion and celery to the bowl.
On top of the scallion and celery, add the quartered green bell pepper.
Pulse to a smooth consistency, then turn this mixture into a large mixing bowl.
Next, with the bowl of our food processor empty, we will start processing the final ingredients. Place one half of the seeded tomatoes in the food processor and pulse until coarsely chopped.
With the machine still running with the second half of the tomatoes that are pureed, pour in one-half cup of V8. We used original V8, but if you like, you could easily substitute the hot and spicy version or the low sodium version.
Add the pureed tomatoes and V8 combination to the mixing bowl. Then add an additional three and one half cups of V8 to the mixing bowl. So the total amount of V8 is four cups. Give this a good stir.
Time to move on to the last couple ingredients. The first of those ingredients is the cucumber. We switched to the slicing attachment for this part of the prep.
As discussed, the cucumbers were peeled, sliced in half lengthwise, and then seeded. We found that we did not need to use the plunger attachment. Just drop the cucumber slice into the feeding tube and turn on the machine. Gravity took them through.
We ended up with a bowl of perfectly sliced crescent shaped cucumber.
Into the mixing bowl with the cucumber and a nice, thorough stir with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula.
Finally, it was time to add the lemon juice, which really is the ingredient which really brings this all together. Four tablespoons is what you will need. You should be able to get that from two lemons, sliced in half, and juiced on your choice of juicer. We poured in the lemon juice and added two teaspoons salt (just regular table salt; nothing fancy), and one-half teaspoon coarse black pepper. A final stir and we had gazpacho.
Here is our cold gazpacho with a smallish dollop of full cream sour cream. Don't use reduced fat sour cream in this. I would say about one tablespoon will do for a standard size soup/cereal bowl.
In short - this is incredible. Positively incredible. There are cooked versions of gazpacho and slightly cooked versions and then uncooked versions. I prefer the uncooked version. This is delicious at room temperature, but even better chilled in the refrigerator. I served it to myself at room temperature, but I would only serve it chilled to guests.
I hope you will make our October Chunky gazpacho soon. I know you will love it.
