I love the recipes from the New York Times (NYT) Cooking site! I’ve run across some amazing recipes – and I always read the comments – they’re full of helpful substitutions, ideas, etc. It’s a hot summer day here in Charleston, SC – so I whipped up this gazpacho which was a welcome dinner – I had to forgo anything warm. I served it with homemade sourdough bread and brie. #wow

As I mentioned, this recipe came from NYT Cooking (by Julia Moskin). This is a quick recipe if you have a good blender, it’s a piece of cake. The timely part of it is going to the store to hunt and gather the supplies, which can (almost) all be found in the produce section! Right now tomatoes are at their peak. So I bought some sourced from a local farm in Charleston. I wasn’t sure about the cubanelle pepper, never had one that I am aware of, it was exquisite and added to the delight of this recipe. This soup is stunningly beautiful (and what a treat to add the vegetable ingredients to the Vitamix, blend, then slowly add the olive oil – and have dinner ready to pop into the REFRIGERATOR! Not to mention what a STUNNING color it turns! Here goes:

BEST GAZPACHO (EVER)! | NYT Cooking | Julia Moskin

• 2.5# good ripe tomatoes, cored and cut into chunks
• 1 cubanelle pepper (or Anaheim) seeded, cored, cut into chunks
• 1 – 8″ cucumber, peeled and cut into chunks
• 1 small red onion (or part of a red onion), peeled, cut into chunks
• 1 small clove garlic

Add to a blender – the more powerful the better in my opinion. Blend it on High speed for about 2 minutes. After mixing is complete, slowly add the following to the blender:

• 2 teaspoons rice wine vinegar (sherry vinegar is the original recipe)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt (original = 2 teaspoons)
• 1/2 cup EVOO (extra virgin olive oil) – I didn’t use more for drizzling, but you could!

This soup will turn from red and juicy to a beautiful orange and more fluffy soup with a lot of body. Refrigerate 6 hours or overnight. I served with a slice of homemade sourdough bread and a wedge of brie.

What a nice, light dinner, and oh! So beautiful! Excellent the next day for lunch and the following day for dinner!

Hope you enjoy…

🍽️ Until next time…