Gazpacho...A garden in a bowl

     The other day I went to the Farmer's Market and sampled some delicious gazpacho, which prompted me to begin a search for a recipe to make my own.  I looked through all of my cook books and found outrageous things such as peach and almond gazpacho as well as others that had very long lists of ingredients.  The gazpacho I had tasted was fresh and simple.  I knew that it had to be simpler than what I was finding.  In a final attempt, I opened my copy of Clean Food and found the recipe that seemed to most closely match what I had tasted.  Yet another solution to the abundance of tomatoes coming my way!

Gazpacho

Ingredients
3-4 medium-large tomatoes
1 small red onion, minced
1 green pepper, minced
1 garlic clove, minced
1 cucumber, diced small
2 tbsp fresh basil
2 tbsp fresh parsley
2 tbsp fresh cilantro
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 dash of hot sauce
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
3 cups tomato juice
salt and pepper to taste

Method
1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil.  Carefully drop the tomatoes in whole and let sit for 30 seconds.  Drain the pot and allow the tomatoes to cool until they are comfortable enough to hold.  Peel the skin from the tomatoes and dice the tomatoes into very small pieces.
2. Combine tomatoes and the rest of the ingredients in a large bowl.  Season with salt and pepper. Chill in the fridge for 2-3 hours before serving.

The Taste Test
     This recipe tastes like summer!  Everything, aside from the tomato juice, came straight from the garden.  The flavors were fresh and a bowl of this gazpacho will definitely cool you off on a hot summer night.  The original recipe called for 4 cups of tomato juice.  The tomatoes I used were really juicy so I only used 3 cups.  I think next time I might even use less so that the consistency is chunkier.