Garden Gazpacho
Last week, Team DYNS (Discover Your Nutritional Style) came to the farm for a visit—to strategize the launch of my new book, and bring me back into the fold. After a full day of planning for the future, keeping things simple for dinner was exactly what we all needed. Lucky for us, our friend’s gardens here in Virginia are bursting with summer goodness and, bless them, they’ve been dropping bags full off over the past couple weeks to keep my family well-stocked in summer veggies.
We had heirloom tomatoes, lots of cucumbers, and even fresh garlic. So, while I decided to juice (see my cucumber creation here), Design Director, Jennifer Elsner, commandeered the Vitamix. Using a recipe from Love and Lemons as her basis, Jen created the below gazpacho, in five minutes! Which spoke perfectly to my grumbling belly and current Modern Vegan lifestyle.
Ingredients
2 large English cucumbers
5 pounds ripe red or yellow tomatoes
½ small onion
3 cloves garlic
¼ cup red wine vinegar
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
¼ teaspoons ancho chili pepper
¼ teaspoons cayenne powder
Sea salt and black pepper
Preparation
1. Clean cucumber skin thoroughly (or peel), de-seed, and cut into chunks; place in a large bowl.
2. Core and roughly chop tomatoes, and add to the bowl with tomato juices, red onion, garlic, red wine vinegar, olive oil, cayenne and ancho. Stir to combine. Season generously with sea salt and black pepper if desired.
3. Place half of the mixture in a high speed blender or Vitamix and blend on low to medium until desired texture is achieved. Repeat with the remaining tomato mixture.
4. Taste and adjust seasoning as necessary.
5. Place the mixture in the refrigerator and let chill, covered, for at least 2 hours. Or, do like we did, and eat it right away, at room temp.
Serve garnished with additional cucumber, red onion, cilantro, mango, avocado, and/or a drizzle of high quality olive oil.
Summertime simplicity,
xx Holli
PS. Have you entered my book launch contest to win fabulous prizes? Order Discover Your Nutritional Style here. Then, scan, copy or forward your receipt to DYNS@hollithompson.com, and you’re in.
