Localgreens
COOL TOMATOES
By Robin Mattson
To many people the tomato is clearly the “poster child” of summer vegetables. Ripe tomatoes are readily available all year in our stores and markets, but no one will argue the merits of summer-fresh, local-raised varieties. This year, due to rain, tomato crops came in late. And because of this, it looks like we’ll keep getting fresh tomatoes throughout the entire month of September.
What we have here is a recipe for gazpacho. It’s a refreshing cold soup that’s a perfect fit for all those big juicy tomatoes available from your CSA, garden, or local farm stand. In this recipe we also make use of the cucumbers and peppers that have been arriving in my recent CSA deliveries. Gazpacho originated in the Andalusia region of Spain but has become a mainstay on summer menus at restaurants all over Manhattan.
Usually I find the stuff served in my neighborhood spots cannot compare to the soup I prepare at home with my fresh, local, CSA produce. As summer winds down, the tomatoes from my CSA farm grow heavy in my hands. They arrive soft and bursting with juice. I come home with a load of fabulously flavored tomatoes that are so ripe they will not even stand up to slicing. That’s when I make this soup.
It doesn’t feel like I’ve had a real summer until I’ve had a bowl of homemade gazpacho. Serve it ice cold and it will revive you on these last hot and steamy days of summer. I’ve added sun-dried tomatoes to this recipe, to intensify the tomatoey-flavor even more, but if you’re tomatoes are flavorful, you can leave out the sun-dried tomatoes.
Counting calories? It doesn’t get much leaner than this. Gazpacho is basically a liquid salad. If you wish, add some chilled, cooked shrimp or jumbo lump crabmeat as a garnish, thereby changing this versatile soup’s character into something a bit more substantial and protein-rich.
ZESTY GAZPACHO
6 – 8 Servings
6 large local field grown beef steak tomatoes
6 (dry pack) sun dried tomatoes
1 red bell pepper, seeded and cut into chunks
½ large Vidalia onion, peeled and cut into chunks
1 cucumber, peeled, seeded and cut into chunks
1 fresh jalapeno pepper, halved and seeded
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup organic tomato juice
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Boil a large pot of water, then place sun dried and fresh tomatoes into the pot for 15 seconds.
Remove and drain all tomatoes from the water with a slotted spoon. Then skin, core and quarter the fresh tomatoes.
Place both kinds of tomatoes into the bowl of a food processor and puree until smooth.
Put tomato mixture through sieve into a large
mixing bowl.
Put red bell pepper, onion, cucumber, jalapeno, and garlic cloves into bowl of food processor, in batches if necessary, and pulse until finely chopped. Add mixture to bowl with tomatoes.
Stir tomato juice into bowl and season with salt and
pepper to taste. Cover and refrigerate at least 4 hours,
or overnight, until very cold.
When ready to serve stir soup to combine elements and taste again for seasoning. Sprinkle some chopped fresh basil over each bowl of soup before serving.
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