Gazpacho

Gazpacho

I broke my own rules. Or maybe I didn't. I usually do tho, so....

There is no recipe for Gazpacho in the Friday Friend book of soups cookbook. Maybe I'll just type this up and add it real quick.
I had to make gazpacho tho.... I was listening to "The Splendid Table" http://splendidtable.publicradio.org/

and Lynne Rossetto Kasper, said that there is NOTHING better than Gazpacho and corn bread for a great simple supper. NOTHING BETTER! And I couldn't get it out of my mind! Just listening to Lynne on her radio show....she makes food sound sensual. Seriously. And I just bought her book "How to eat Supper", and reading the book is just like listening to her. It's food porn, I tell ya. I mean, it makes you want to stay in the kitchen and cook...and then eat. Eat, EAT, EAT!
But....she doesn't have a gazpacho recipe in this book. It's sad.

Gazpacho is a cold vegatable soup. Yes, cold. My husband says that soups are cold, it's not natural....but he loves this soup.
And I once made gazpacho and it was good.
The problem was....finding the cookbook I used ten years ago, when I made it.
You might think this is an easy thing to do... but have you seen my cookbook collection? No, I didn't think so.... I have over 200 cookbooks. I didn't have time to look thru ...every. Single. One.
So, I took a recipe that I found in one of them, and added a few things. My own creation!! And it was good.

These are the veggies I used. Fresh veggies are so pretty.


You cut/dice/chop them as fine as you want, but you really do want a diced vegetable and not a chopped vegetable.


Put them all in a bowl and cover with tomato juice and spices.

In a "traditional" gazpacho, it's mostly tomatoes and bread. But I like the crunchiness of the veggies.

And then the corn bread....dripping with butter (and honey)

You have to let it set in the fridge and marry for a few hours at least. To me, it tastes even better the next day. Although one of the recipes I found said to only add "shredded" cucumber at the very end. I didn't listen to that recipe, I added them right away to let them marry.
And I also added avocados. This is not traditional at all!! Purists would say "no way" to that. But they are good. You could add a jalapeno` too, I suppose...but then, it's getting to be too much like a salsa, so best to leave it out.


Debbie's Gazpacho (not traditional by any means)

2 1/2 cups chopped tomatoes (I used plum)
1 stalk celery finely chopped
1/4 cup purple onion finely chopped
1/2 cup cucumber finely chopped
1 clove garlic minced
1/4 cup red pepper finely chopped
1/4 cup green pepper finely chopped
1 avocado finely diced
juice of 1 whole lemon
juice of 1 whole lime
2 tsp honey
2 1/2 cups tomato juice
a few leaves of fresh basil, chopped fine.

to taste:
salt
pepper
paprika
cumin--just a sprinkle
croutons to sprinkle on top