Cooking Lesson #661: Summer’s-End Chilled Gazpacho

…from the Perspectives’ Kitchen

How you doin’? Cold soup is a very tricky thing, and it is the rare chef that can carry it off well. More often than not, the dinner guests are left with the impression that had they only arrived a little earlier they could have enjoyed it while it was still hot.
 
You’ve heard the old saying, “never wear white after Labor Day and never serve soup in the summer (or something like that). Not true!
 
We whirled up fresh, green batches of gazpacho over the years and even included them on my restaurant menus. I make the green one at home when I have more overly ripe avocado than I know what to do with. I’ve been told that my green gazpacho converted many summer cold-soup skeptics into full-blown fanatics of the stuff. So, what do you do when you have more out-of-the-garden tomatoes and summer harvest, garden grown vegetables than you can use? We go to the other side of the color wheel and see red.
 
My Summer’s End Chilled Gazpacho is made with a lightly acidified broth, made with puréed tomatoes and a wheel barrel of fresh harvest diced vegetables—Vidalia onions, punchy garlic, sweet red bell pepper, spicy red jalapeño and crunchy cucumber. If you’ve got some extra summer corn toss it in. All those veggies make this gazpacho a bit heartier than a straight purée, but it’s still wonderfully refreshing. You’ll love the combination of the cool, delicate broth with the fresh, crisp, vegetable textures.
 
Serve with warm crusty sourdough bread and a bottle of Mondavi Fume Blanc.
 
Prep time:  20 minutes
Cook time:  30 seconds
Chill time:  2 hours
Yield:  6 servings
 
Ingredients 
6 to 8 large ripe red tomatoes, cored
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup diced Vidalia onion
2 tablespoon minced cloves
1-1/2 cups diced red or orange bell pepper
1 diced jalapeño pepper, seeds and seams removed
1 diced English cucumber, seeds removed
1/2 cup fresh corn off the cob (optional)
1-1/2 tablespoons rice vinegar
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 bunch fresh cilantro leaves with stems

Directions
1.    Bring a medium pot of water to a boil.
2.    Fill a large bowl of water with half ice and half water to shock the cooked tomatoes.
3.    Cut an “x” on the bottom of each cored tomato (this makes it easier to peel) and, using a slotted spoon, gently place them into the boiling water for about 30 seconds.
4.     Remove the tomatoes with the slotted spoon and transfer them immediately to the bowl of ice water.
5.    Once the tomatoes have cooled, peel off the skin and cut them into quarters. Using a strainer over an empty bowl, squeeze out the seeds and reserve 1 cup of the tomato juice. Discard the seeds.
6.    Transfer the squeezed, seeded tomatoes to a blender. Add the reserved 1 cup tomato juice and the extra virgin olive oil, and pulse until the tomatoes are completely puréed.
7.    Pour the purée into a large bowl and add the diced Vidalia onions, garlic, bell peppers, jalapeño peppers, English cucumbers, corn (if you’re using it), rice and balsamic vinegar, kosher salt, and black pepper; stir to incorporate all ingredients well.

Note: Reserve some of the chopped vegetables to garnish the soup.

8.    Refrigerate the soup for at least 2 hours, allowing the flavors to blossom.
9.    Serve in chilled bowls and garnish with fresh cilantro and reserved veggies, if applicable.

ChefSecret:  This soup can be made a day or two in advance and stored in a sealed container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. Planning ahead, makes life a little easier by preparing this gazpacho a day or so in advance. The flavors only get more intense the longer you let the soup’s ingredients blossom in the refrigerator. 

Quip of the Day:  “Soup puts the heart at ease, calms down the violence of hunger, eliminates the tension of the day and awakens and refines the appetite." — Auguste Escoffier
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Do you have a question or comment?   Send your thoughts to [email protected]. All recipes and cooking tips are posted on our website https://www.perspectives-la.com/covid-19-survival-guide.
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To you and everyone dear to you, be strong, be positive, stay well, stay safe and be kind. Take a breath and count your blessings, and if you have a little extra to share with others, please consider donating to Feeding America and/or American Red Cross.

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                                                                   ©PERSPECTIVES/The Consulting Group, LLC, 2023

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