Gazpacho made simple

[gardener]

In early September fresh tomatoes are ripe from the vine, plentiful, and cheap. On chilly days, homemade tomato soup hits the spot, but this is still the season for cold soups, none better than gazpacho.

Here is my adaptation, but with a major difference from most of the recipes for this delightful dish, which call for the tomatoes to be peeled and seeded. Peeling tomatoes is easy. Just drop them in boiling water for 60 seconds, and the skin can be slipped off with no trouble. Tomato seed removal, however, is a pain, and also removes the juicy, flavorful gel surrounding them. There’s no real reason to remove either skin or seeds. The skin is particularly rich in the lycopene and other antioxidants that abound in tomatoes. (Since lycopene is more available in cooked than in raw tomatoes, keeping the skin has benefits. ) Also, food processors make it possible to have no seeds or bits of peel visibly present.

Ingredients (inexact):
3-4 pounds of fresh tomatoes. I use a mix of Beefsteak-type fruits and Italian plum tomatoes
1 cucumber peeled (and seeds removed if they’re starting to plump up and get hard)
2 bell peppers, 1 red, 1 green
salt and pepper to taste
canned tomato juice (I use Campbells.)
chipotle to taste (I use Trader Joe’s Hot and Smoky Chipotle Salsa.)
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Check tomatoes for spots of decay and discard any that show signs. Wash them very thoroughly. Since this soup is not cooked, you want to reduce any source of contamination.Scoop out stem and upper core.

Puree them in processor thoroughly. If processor is small, you may have to do a couple of batches.

Using chopper blade, chop cucumbers and peppers. Add to tomatoes.

Add chipotle to taste. (I use only a couple of tablespoons of chipotle salsa, then serve salsa along with gazpacho, so people can add the heat to their taste or preference.)
Add olive oil and stir.

Chill to 35º

Thin to desired thickness with tomato juice.Other ingredients are possible. Touch of garlic. Chopped onions. A few bits of celery. Stale French bread, cubed and toasted. Avocado slices (very unorthodox!) Ice cubes. More cukes than recipe calls for, also more peppers.

Gazpacho is best with fresh tomatoes in season, but in winter, boxed Panni chopped tomatoes from Italy are reasonably okay.

[Jean-Paul]

That looks pretty yummy Gardener... I wish my tomatoes had done better this year. They did so poorly that I am about to go pull them right now. They are disease infested, too tall and leggy despite my efforts to prevent it, and only the first round of tomatoes I got from it were great. The rest were pretty small and pathetic. I am hungry now!