Cool Summer Gazpacho

I have a confession.  Before making this, I had never eaten gazpacho.  I was missing out!  Lots of my favorite summer things: tomatoes, cucumbers, red bell peppers...and it's a soup!  I love soup.  In the winter Alex and I usually have a soup day once a week.  We make and freeze soups so we have an easy healthy dinner with some nice crusty bread.  But in this 100+ degree weather out here in the desert (and apparently across the country) soup hasn't been on the menu for quite some time.  What a great time to try some cold soup.  (with crusty bread too of course!)

Now, as I said, I'd never had gazpacho before so I turned to my number one most trusted celebrity chef for a recipe.  Ina Garten.  (Sorry Gordon!)  Ina's recipe recommends letting the soup chill and rest for a while before serving so Alex and I knocked this out during nap time.  He chopped the veggies and I (wo)manned the processor.  We were done in a flash.

Gazpacho, adapted from Ina Garten

1 hothouse cucumber, halved and seeded, but not peeled

2 red bell peppers, cored and seeded

4 plum tomatoes

1 small red onion

3 garlic cloves, minced

3 c. tomato juice (23 oz)

1/4 c. white wine vinegar

1/2 c. olive oil

1/2  Tbsp. kosher salt

1 tsp. freshly ground pepper

Chop all the vegetables into 1 inch pieces.  One type of vegetable at a time,  pulse them in the food processor until coarsely chopped and remove to a large bowl.  Once all the veggies are processed and in the large bowl, add the rest of the ingredients and stir to combine.  Put in the refrigerator to chill for at least an hour but longer if possible. This is great the next day!!

We enjoyed the soup immensely with a few little crostini that Alex made from a baguette, some leftover pesto, and some mozzarella cheese.  A great, light, dinner to beat the heat.  (And the scale after scarfing down so much pulled pork and macaroni salad over the weekend!)