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By Sharon Sorokin James
hen I think of summer, I think of cold. Not cold, as in weather—but cold food. Heating up my stove or my oven is the last thing I want to do in hot weather. The cold “soup” below is among my favorites things to prepare this time of year. This gazpacho requires only the ingredients and a blender to make. Vegetable GazpachoA little of this, a little of that . . . the beauty of this recipe is that you don’t have to be exact in your measurements. Make it often, and you’ll develop just the right proportions to please your taste buds.
Ingredients & Preparation
3 or 4 large cucumbers
2 red sweet peppers
1 green pepper
5 or 6 stalks of celery
A bunch of radishes
1 bulb fresh fennel (reserve the feathery tops)
1 small- to medium-sized red or white onion
1 or 2 cloves of garlic
1/4 to 1/3 cup olive oil, to taste
1/4 to 1/3 cup Balsamic wine vinegar
1 quart or so of tomato juice
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 to 1 1/2 teaspoons cumin, to taste
2 to 3 tablespoons chopped fresh basil, to taste
1 hot pepper, fresh, chopped or cayenne (optional)
Peel and seed the cucumbers, seed and coarsely chop the red and green peppers, coarsely chop the celery, radishes, fennel bulb, and the onion. Finely mince the garlic. If you are going to use fresh, hot pepper, now is the time to seed it, chop it and add it to the mix. (Or, if you prefer, you can add cayenne to taste later, when you add the oil and vinegar, or skip the pepper altogether.) Put all of these ingredients together in a blender with the tomato juice and liquefy. I use my food processor, because I don’t have a blender, and it works just as well. In either case, you may need to liquefy in batches, using some vegetables and some juice in each batch.
Pour the mixture into a large serving bowl. Add olive oil, Balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper, cumin, fresh basil and the cayenne. I usually use about 1/4 to 1/3 cup of olive oil and vinegar to taste. Stir, chill until quite cold, garnish with chopped feathery fennel tops (just the feathery part) and serve.
Tip: You may need to stir the soup to keep it from separating. To avoid this, after liquefying the vegetables, leave them in the blender, take two or three slices of two-day-old dry French bread. Wet the bread well, squeeze out the water, and add it to the mixture in the blender. Liquefy again.
One Good Use for Mint Grown WildTo use up your pesky garden mint, rip it up by the roots (which seem never-ending) or snip off stalks, if you haven’t the energy to pull it up. Get lots of it. Rinse it well in cold water to get rid of dirt and insects, and then put it in a large pitcher. Boil water, and pour it over the mint. Let it steep for at least 15 minutes, then strain and chill. The result: perfect iced mint herb tea. It’s very refreshing without sugar, and it costs absolutely nothing to make, as long as your garden is overrun with mint. ____________________________
Two more Cool Summer Soup recipes by Sharon Sorokin James appear in the “Cheap & Easy Eats” column of the July/August issue of MAKING BREAD. Visit our Subscribe page and check out our “Best Buy” 16-day trial subscription rate of $5.95, which will give you access to these recipes and all of the other “recipes for success” that we offer in every issue of our downloadable magazine, MAKING BREAD. |
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