Thursday, June 25, 2009

Barefoot Bloggers: Gazpacho



As I said in my last post Gazpacho is not something my wife would go for. She is not a tomato person and she doesn't like peppers at all. I did kind of want to try this though and not just skip the recipe. I decided to make it on father's day when we had other people over that could try it.
The recipe was very easy - you just throw everything in the food processor (one at a time) and give it a few pulses.
I should have thought about it a little because the recipe makes a lot - a least if you are not serving it as a main course. I wasn't really making it one of my main dishes on father's day since I knew a lot of people would not like it. I just figured I would let those that wanted to try it have it as a little appetizer. Well I totally forgot about it. While I was cleaning things off the table I noticed the bowl in the fridge so it was a little bit of an after thought. I tried it along with my Mom and my sister. I don't think anyone really loved it. I thought it was OK but it wasn't anything that I would just gobble up because it was sooo good. My sister thought it would have been better as a dip than as a soup. I think I agree with that - add a few hot peppers and it would be a good salsa.
I did still have a lot left over and my wife thought it might go over at her work. Well apparently it did. Everyone finished it off and we even got a few requests for the recipe. I guess she got the dip comment there as well. It won't go on my list to make in the future but I am glad other people liked it.
Thanks to Meryl from My Bit of Earth for this months recipe. I will be watching to see what she thinks of the recipe.

Gazpacho
Serves 4 to 6

Ingredients
  • 1 hothouse cucumber, halved and seeded, but not peeled
  • 2 red bell peppers, cored and seeded
  • 4 plum tomatoes
  • 1 red onion
  • 3 garlic cloves, minced
  • 23 ounces tomato juice (3 cups)
  • 1/4 cup white wine vinegar
  • 1/4 cup good olive oil
  • 1/2 tablespoon kosher salt
  • 1 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
Directions
  1. Roughly chop the cucumbers, bell peppers, tomatoes, and red onions into 1-inch cubes. Put each vegetable separately into a food processor fitted with a steel blade and pulse until it is coarsely chopped. Do not overprocess!
  2. After each vegetable is processed, combine them in a large bowl and add the garlic, tomato juice, vinegar, olive oil, salt, and pepper. Mix well and chill before serving. The longer gazpacho sits, the more the flavors develop.

4 comments:

  1. Glad you made it even though it was not your favorite. I added shrimp to mine and made a great bread to round out the meal.

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  2. It was a little salsa-ish, but (after seeing the idea on a few blogs) I'm thinking of putting it in shot glasses and serving it as an appetizer the next time we have people over.

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  3. Taking it to work is a great idea. I usually only bring baked goods to work so I didn't bring this in. Probably should have though.

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  4. I would probably go well on a really hot day while grilling.

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