Tomato Gazpacho

This recipe serves 4 as a meal, and 6 as an appetizer.

Ingrediants
2 cans of 14.5 organic diced tomatoes with juice
1 hothouse cucumber, diced (see below-save about 1/2 cup for garnish)
1/2 jalapeno, seeded and cut in half
2 tablespoons of cilantro, plus a handful for garnish
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon salt
black pepper
1/2 red bell pepper, diced (see below for garnish)
18 small cherry tomatoes, cut in half
-1 tomato on the vine, cut in half and quartered
-1/2 small yellow onion, chopped

Set aside for Garnish
- a few leaves of cilantro (about 6 per bowl)
-a tablespoon red bell pepper, diced
-diced cucumber (about 1/4 cup per bowl)
-yellow onion
-tomato on the vine


This is a pretty simple recipe. You pretty much just have to chop the veggies, blend, pour in a bowl, and garnish! The first thing you have to do is chop and dice the cucumber, red bell pepper, onion, and garlic. Prepare the jalapeno, cherry tomatoes, and cilantro. Make sure to set aside some of the cucumber, cilantro, and bell pepper for garnish. Chop the vine tomato and set aside with the garnish and onion for later.

The soup is made in two batches. In a blender, add 1 can of the tomatoes with the juice, and add half of each: cucumber, jalapeno, cilantro, garlic, red wine vinegar, olive oil, salt, bell pepper, cherry tomatoes, and some black pepper to taste. Process in the blender on the lowest speed until broken down. Turn the speed up to high and puree until the soup is completely smooth. Repeat with the second half and mix together.

Pour the soup in bowls, and add a handful of the yellow onion, cucumber, a few leaves of cilantro, a few pieces of the chopped vine tomato, and some red bell pepper. You can eat right away, or chill and eat very cold the next day.

Delights and afterthoughts:

I got this awesome cookbook for my birthday called Great Chefs cook Vegan. This recipe is basically a variation from a chef named Suzanne Goin from this cookbook, but with some differences. The recipe originally called for yellow tomatoes, but this one uses canned red diced tomatoes. We also used yellow onion instead of red onion. There is so much that you can do with gazpacho, and I think you can probably make it different every time. I was really happy and amazed with how flavorful this gazpacho turned out, and I think you will be too. The best thing about it is that you get a full serving of vegetables and it's all raw (well, the canned tomatoes may not be raw, but close!) so you are not cooking out any of the enzymes. Also, you can really taste the garlic in this, but feel free to add more since garlic is such a good antioxidant when raw. I also had a thought that if you wanted to substitute one can of fire roasted tomatoes, or add cayenne pepper, then you can can make spicy tomato gazpacho. Or, maybe you like to have chunks in your soup, so don't puree until completely smooth... just blend until desired consistancy. You can really put your own variation on it... like adding some basil and some grated follow-your-heart mozzarella "cheese" to make a tomato caprese gazpacho... that sounds yummy! Or, maybe add some chunks of avocado... that sounds good too. Seriously... try it out and let me know what you think. I'd love to hear about it!