Tomatoes, Tomatoes, Tomatoes! We have tunnels full of tomatoes at the farm in all colors. Last week at Honor the Harvest, we featured Gazpacho in our menu. It had such a positive response, we decided to share the recipe.
Fun Fact: Tomatoes are the state vegetable of New Jersey, coincidentally also where farmer Lance is from!
Fun Fact: If you are interested in a large scale tomato fight go to the small Spanish town of Buñol. Its a festival called La Tomatina, with 40,00 people throwing around 150,000 tomatoes.
Gazpacho
Ingredients:
- 6 ripe tomatoes (about 3 lbs), peeled and chopped (yielding about 6 cups)
- 1 red onion, finely chopped (about 1 1/4 cups)
- 1 cucumber, peeled, seeded, chopped (about 1 cup)
- 1 sweet red bell pepper (or green) seeded and chopped (about 1 cup)
- 2 stalks celery, chopped (about 1 cup)
- 1-2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives
- 1 clove garlic, minced (about 1 teaspoon)
- 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
- 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 2 teaspoons sugar (more may be needed to balance out the acidity of the tomatoes, add to taste)
- Salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
- 6 or more drops of Tabasco sauce to taste
- 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce (omit for vegan or vegetarian option)
- 2 cups tomato juice (or 1 15-ounce can crushed tomatoes if you don’t have tomato juice)
Instructions:
- Puree the soup: Combine all of your ingredients in a blender or food processor, and puree for 1 minute or until the gazpacho reaches your desired consistency. (I love mine super-smooth.)
- Chill: Transfer the soup to a sealed container and refrigerate for 4 hours or until completely chilled.
Serve: Then serve the soup nice and cold, garnished with your favorite toppings. Authentic gazpacho usually tops off the soup with leftover cutup ingredients
