100th Post: Green Tomato Gazpacho for The Secret Recipe Club

Green Tomato Gazpacho

For today's post, I'm focusing on the positive. Happy 100^th post Fabulously Fun Food! Bender and I have now been back in the USA for two weeks and will be moving to our new home next week. We've spent the last two weeks visiting with family, which has been wonderful after two years of being so far away. As such, I've spent most of my time away from the kitchen, but I snuck in to my mom's kitchen last night and whipped up a batch of Green Tomato Gazpacho. Perhaps snuck is the wrong word considering my mom put more effort into making the gazpacho than I did. Halfway through the process I realized that I could not find the avocado I purchased, so I had to get Bender to drive me to the store to get another one. Luckily, Publix accepted my story without any questions, so I didn't have to buy a second one. So Momma did all the chopping; I did the blending.

Be prepared: use gloves for hot peppers.

Why did I pick Green Tomato Gazpacho? Good question. I was assigned Denise Evans' blog Eat Laugh Love for the Secret Recipe Club this month. I loved going through all her pizza recipes (I'm quite excited about the Cheeseburger Pizza and the Malaysian Chicken Pizza) and felt that our cooking philosophies matched up quite well. I had every intention of making pizza, but time slipped away as it tends to do when you are surrounded by your nieces, so Green Tomato Gazpacho fit the bill. Plus, I've always wanted to make a gazpacho but have hesitated due to the inclusion of bell peppers. When I saw that this one had avocados and no green peppers, I leapt at the chance to make it.

We got to this step before realizing the avocado was AWOL.

Green Tomato Gazpacho

adapted minimally from Denise Evans of Eat Laugh Love

Ingredients:
2 lbs. Any combination of green tomatoes, unripe red tomatoes, and/or tomatillos, cored and coarsely chopped, plus one tomato or tomatillo cut into small wedges for garnish
1 cucumber unpeeled and coarsely chopped, plus finely diced unpeeled cucumber for garnish
1 medium sweet onion, coarsely chopped
1 avocado - halved, pitted and peeled
1 small jalapeño, stemmed – remove seeds if you are heat-adverse
2 garlic cloves
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice
1 cup cold water
2 tablespoons mint leaves, plus more for garnish
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Method:
In a blender, combine half each of the coarsely chopped green tomatoes, cucumber and onion with the avocado, jalapeño, garlic, lime juice and water and puree until smooth. Transfer the puree to a large bowl. (Our blender was full of delicious margaritas, so we used the seven cup food processor instead. The bowl was quite full with just half of the ingredients.)

Add the remaining coarsely chopped green tomatoes, cucumber and onion to the blender along with the 2 tablespoons of mint, the cilantro and 1/4 cup of olive oil and pulse to a chunky puree. Add the puree to the bowl and stir well. Refrigerate the soup until well chilled, at least 1 hour. Season the gazpacho with salt and pepper and ladle it into chilled bowls. Garnish the cold soup with the tomato wedges, diced cucumber, mint leaves and a drizzle of olive oil and serve. This can be stored in an airtight container and refrigerated overnight.

The original recipe indicated it makes 8-10 appetizer servings, and can easily be halved for 4 entree servings. I made the whole recipe and it fit perfectly in a 3 quart pyrex bowl for storage. 

This batch was the chunky batch. You can easily leave it chunkier for a more textured soup or puree it fully a smooth one. I love that this recipe is so customizable!

THOUGHTS:

This recipe is a breeze to put together. And it's delicious. And it's vegan. And it's no cook for these hot summer days! If you're not feeling vegan when you make, I'm sure it would be delicious with chopped, thick cut bacon crumbled on top. Have you tried bacon and avocado together? I think it's my favorite flavor combination ever. Of course, the soup is delicious without the bacon too. Going the vegan route, I think the soup would be even better with large chunks of avocado mixed in with your garnishes. 

Momma had the great idea to serve this soup as an appetizer with all your garnishes on the side so each person can pick out their garnishes. Go wild with your garnish options. For added pizzazz, serve it in martini glasses. 

VERDICT:

Oh-so-simple-and-delicious: 2 votes!

Mhmm.

Many thanks to Starbucks' free wifi for making this post possible. The storm last night killed my internet connection. Also, thank you Starbucks for opening at 5:30am so my post could go up on time. 


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