Gazpacho

Heirloom Gazpacho

This post is sponsored by Door-to-Door Organics. All opinions are my own. #MyFarm2Table

I was sent some beautiful Local Organic Heirloom Tomatoes from Door-to-Door Organics for my Farm-to-Table post. I love the colors of heirloom tomatoes, especially the lighter ones, so I wanted to use them in a way that highlighted their coloring. What better way to make heirloom tomatoes the star but in a Gazpacho recipe?

Now, the one typical setback of making gazpacho is going through the whole process of peeling and seeding tomatoes. So, for this recipe, I just eliminated it. I have a pretty awesome blender (a Blendtec) which blended the tomatoes well enough to basically eliminate the skins and seeds, so yours may come out a bit more chunky. But removing the skin of a tomato is just such a pain!

I served my silky smooth gazpacho topped with finely chopped cherry tomatoes and a Wild Flour Bakery Hearth Baked Mini Baguette that was also in my box from Door-to-Door Organics. The recipe also includes a green bell pepper and a jalapeno which were also a part of my box.

Ingredients:

3 cups heirloom tomatoes, chopped (I used some yellow and red)
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 peeled cucumber, chopped
1/2 cup onion, chopped
1 jalapeno, seeded and chopped
1 garlic clove, chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons champagne vinegar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
cherry tomatoes, chopped, optional

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Gazpacho with Grilled Pickapeppa Shrimp

Cooking Light’s August issue had a recipe for Pickapeppa Chicken and Mango Kebabs (that I plan on making soon) that required me to buy a bottle of Pickapeppa sauce. I had never heard of this sauce before and I was intrigued. It’s a Caribbean condiment referred to as “Jamaican ketchup” that is basically a sweeter A1 sauce, made with tomatoes, onions, mangoes, peppers, and other spices.

I thought this sauce sounded like it would be great on shrimp, so I decided to incorporate it into another Cooking Light recipe from the same issue: Gazpacho with Shrimp.

Ingredients:

1 (10-ounce) container grape tomatoes, divided
1 1/2 cups sliced English cucumber, divided
1 cup diced red bell pepper, divided (about 2 peppers)
3/4 cup diced Vidalia or other sweet onion, divided
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
2 tablespoons sherry vinegar
5/8 teaspoon kosher salt, divided
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, divided
3 garlic cloves
1 (28-ounce) can San Marzano tomatoes, drained
The juice of one lemon
1 garlic clove, minced
¼ cup pickapeppa sauce
20 medium shrimp, peeled and deveined (about 8 ounces)

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The warm days in Philadelphia keep on coming, so I think it’s time to attempt making the summer favorite: gazpacho. I wanted to do an heirloom gazpacho, but I am presently cooking out of Wilmington and the local store does not carry any. Sigh. I used this recipe from Cooking Light and just changed some of the ingredients to fit what I could find in the store.

Ingredients:

2 seeded peeled cucumbers, plus 1 for garnish

1 chopped Vidalia or other sweet onion

1 coarsely chopped red bell pepper

6 tablespoons white wine vinegar

1 tablespoon extravirgin olive oil

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

6 large tomatoes, chopped seeded & peeled

1 garlic clove, minced

1 finely chopped yellow pepper, for garnish

1 finely chopped orange pepper, for garnish

1 finely chopped tomatillo, for garnish

8 pieces of garlic bread (optional)

To begin, prepare all of your ingredients. Peel and seed 2 cucumbers. To learn how to seed a cucumber, check out my post here. Roughly chop the onion and red bell pepper. To peel a tomato, prepare a bowl with ice water and bring another pot of water to a boil.

On the bottom side of the tomatoes, cut an X into the skin.

When the water is boiling, place 2 tomatoes at a time into the water.

Keep in the water for 15 to 20 seconds, remove, and place in the ice water.

Once cooled, use a knife to peel away the skin from the X.

Repeat with remaining tomatoes.

To seed the tomato, cut the tomato in half and use a spoon to scoop out the seeds. Discard the seeds and roughly chop the tomatoes.

Prepped Veggies

To make the gazpacho, combine first 9 ingredients (up to the garlic).

Add 1/3 of the mixture to a food processor and blend until smooth. Pour into a large bowl and repeat with the remaining 2/3 vegetable mixture. Cover and chill.

When ready to serve, spoon gazpacho into bowls. Finely chop your yellow and orange peppers and tomatillo. Combine the peppers and tomatillo.

Add 2 tablespoons of the mixture to each bowl. If you’d like, you can also add a piece of garlic bread (or just a crusty piece of day old bread), 1 tablespoon goat cheese, or a teaspoon of sour cream.

This would also be a nice appetizer. Pour the gazpacho into shooter glasses and top with a teaspoon of the pepper tomatillo mixture.

You can also use the gazpacho as a pureed salsa. Prepare garlic bread. Put on a plate with a bowl of gazpacho in the center with a spoon. Guests can spoon gazpacho on top of the bread, or use the bread to dip into the gazpacho.