As the days get warmer, there’s something appealing about a refreshing bowl of gazpacho – perfect for when the tomatoes are ripening in the hot late summer sun.
I added a hot pepper (something I don’t often do in my recipes because I’m a spice wimp) that didn’t taste too spicy when I tasted the tip, but wound up making a very spicy pot.
I gave some tips on dealing with hot peppers in the video, but I mentioned it to my sister-in-law after, who eat lots of hot peppers, and she gave me a couple more.
Simple And Fresh Gazpacho Recipe
Prep time:
Makes 4-6 bowls of soup
She said the the bottom tip of the pepper is the least spicy, and the top part where the pith and the seeds grow is the most spicy – so my first taste was the mildest.
She also said that it was lucky I didn’t rub my eyes afterwards, since the spicy oils hang on to your skin for quite a while and they burn your eyes like crazy.
Of course, after she said that I washed my hands thoroughly with soap and then had an itch in my eye so I rubbed it. ouch!
The good news, for anyone who’s not a fan of hot peppers, is that this recipe is absolutely delicious without any at all!
And the 2nd day we ate this, I added some pureed avocado and some cooked chickpeas to counter the spice a little bit. Not in the true gazpacho-ly spirit of using stale bread, but yummy and healthy!
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Easy Gazpacho Recipe
Ingredients
- 8 cups fresh tomatoes
- 1 large cucumber
- 2 bell peppers (any color)
- 1/4 cup shallots or sweet onion (or another 1/4 cup chives or green onion)
- 2-3 cloves garlic, pressed
- 1 lemon or lime, juiced
- 1/4 cup fresh basil
- 1/4 cup fresh parsley
- 1/4 cup fresh chives or green onion
- 2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
- Pinch sea salt and pepper
- 1 small hot pepper (optional)
Directions
- If you’re making the soup by hand, chop all the veggies up fairly small, and put them in a large soup pot with the seasonings.
- If you have an immersion blender, you can puree until it’s chopped up finely but not totally smooth.
- If you want to make this really quickly, put everything in a food processor or blender and pulse until you get the consistency you like.
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