The Greatest Gazpacho in the World

I put a plea on Facebook for home-grown tomatoes. Though I haven't received any free produce, I did receive some requests for my gazpacho recipe.

One of these things is not like the others.

Susan spent a lovely six weeks in Sevilla this summer, and we enjoyed her host-sister, Angela's company for the six weeks after that.

In addition to my "I Heart Portugal" spoon rest, Susan brought me a scarf (with birds on it!  Yippee!), some beautiful silver earrings, and most importantly the gazpacho recipe from the Juarez family.

Can you overdose on lycopene?  I eat a lot of this stuff.

Gazpacho

3-4 inch piece of hearty French bread or baguette
2 lbs. fresh tomatoes, whole (The darker red tomatoes make a darker red soup.)
 half of cucumber, peeled
1 green pepper, seeds removed
1 clove of garlic, peeled
half of a white onion, peeled
1/2 tsp salt
1/3-1/2 cup olive oil

Tear up the bread into rough piece (just a few will do) and put in a small bowl with some water, enough water for the bread to soak in and get soggy.

Puree all of the produce in the blender with the salt.

Squeeze the water out of the bread and add the bread to the blender.  Puree.

Add the olive oil.  Puree.

Strain the gazpacho in a mesh sieve, using a ladle to push the liquid through.  You can also add some unstrained gazpacho to your final product to make it thicker.

Serve and chill.  Or chill and serve, depending on how hungry you are.

I had to buy a bigger blender and a bigger sieve because my little Oster couldn't handle the quantities.

We've tried this with and without onions, and using poblano peppers instead of green.  Sometimes I substitute some of the olive oil with flax seed oil.  It's all good.

Thank you, Angela!

....still looking for free homegrown tomatoes...might just have to start a squirrel-proof garden next year...