Gazpacho

It has been so hot here that cooking seems like a ridiculous notion. So we didn't. Maycee and I made gazpacho tonight instead. Maycee chopped the bell peppers and cucumber and made me chop the onions and garlic. She is proving to be quite the helper in the kitchen. We used a recipe the children received from their garden class at the library. The tomatoes, bell peppers (purple ones!), cucumber, garlic and an onion came from a local farm. The other onion and a few of the tomatoes came from Nana and Papa's garden. It tasted delicious. It did, however remind us of salsa. This was compounded by the fact that we ate it with tortilla chips. A friend suggested that we eat it with grilled cheese, so next time time we will try that.

The onions made me cry!



 UPDATE: HERE IS THE RECIPE:
Copyright 1999 The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook

Ingredients

• 1 hothouse cucumber, halved and seeded, but not peeled
• 2 red bell peppers, cored and seeded
• 4 plum tomatoes
• 1 red onion
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 23 ounces tomato juice (3 cups)
• 1/4 cup white wine vinegar
• 1/4 cup good olive oil
• 1/2 tablespoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper

Directions

Roughly chop the cucumbers, bell peppers, tomatoes, and red onions into 1-inch cubes. Put each vegetable separately into a food processor fitted with a steel blade and pulse until it is coarsely chopped. Do not overprocess!

After each vegetable is processed, combine them in a large bowl and add the garlic, tomato juice, vinegar, olive oil, salt, and pepper. Mix well and chill before serving. The longer gazpacho sits, the more the flavors develop.