Easy gazpacho.

Now that we’re full-on into tomato season, I’m playing around with one of my favorite summer dishes: gazpacho. Recently, I posted a recipe for fresh and tangy white gazpacho, which is built on a base of cucumber, green apple and Greek yogurt. Of course, there’s my garbage gazpacho recipe, which I developed last summer when I had a drawer-full of waning produce in the refrigerator that needed to be used, and fast.

Last week, I turned to my very favorite gazpacho recipe, one that my Mom photocopied from an unidentified cookbook years ago. She adjusted the recipe slightly, and I’ve done so as well. Mom dated the copy 6/21/03 and wrote ‘amazing’—which, indeed, it is. Even better: It’s super easy to make in a food processor. (Alternately, you could chop the veggies by hand.) It’s chunky, vibrant, healthy and full of summer’s best produce.

Later this week, I’m going to try yet another version of gazpacho, this one a smooth puree of bread, tomatoes, garlic and red bell pepper (no cuke, no spicy jalapeño kick). I’ll post that recipe as well, for those of you who, like me, can’t get enough of this fresh vegetable soup this time of year.

easy food processor gazpacho

(makes about 4 cups)

1 small clove of garlic, peeled
1/2 jalapeño pepper, seeds removed (or more to taste)
4 green onions, white and pale green parts cut into 1-inch pieces
1 stalk celery, cut into 1-inch pieces
1/2 red bell pepper, seeds removed, cut into quarters
2 tomatoes, seeds removed, cut into quarters
2 cups low-sodium tomato juice (I used tomato broth)
1 medium cucumber
juice of 1/2 lemon
2 Tbsp. olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Fit the metal blade into your food processor; add garlic and jalapeño and process until finely chopped. Add the green onion, celery and bell pepper; process to chop into about 1/4-inch pieces. Transfer the vegetables to a bowl. Place 1/2 of the tomatoes in the processor and chop coarsely; transfer these to the bowl with the other veggies. Puree the rest of the tomatoes until smooth. Transfer the tomato puree to the bowl, then add tomato juice, lemon juice and olive oil. Peel the cucumber and slice it in quarters lengthwise; remove seeds and slice thinly. Add the cucumber slices to the gazpacho. Season well with salt and pepper to taste. Chill the soup before serving; it’s actually better the second day.

related recipes

smooth and creamy gazpacho
white gazpacho