I could eat quarts of gazpacho all summer long. When I set about making this version, the goal was a gazpacho with great, fresh tomato taste, but even deeper flavor.
The solution was simple: roast the tomatoes first.
The sweet, layered result is well worth the slight extra hands-off time it took to bake them. If you feel like your tomatoes are perfect, then skip the roasting and get right to the chopping.
You can use peppers that are all the same color, but the blend of hues won’t be as varied. You also can swap in one green pepper; some people love their slightly more bitter flavor.
In a perfect world, all of the vegetables in a gazpacho might be finely diced, and look pretty and symmetrical. I don’t happen to live in a perfect world, and I happen to love my food processor, so I just use that to pulse the vegetables in batches so they chop evenly. Is it as pretty as dicing? Nope. Does it taste as good? Yup.
What to do with all of that extra time? I’m sure you’ll find something good.
ROASTED TOMATO GAZPACHO
Start to finish: 1 hour plus chilling time
Servings: 6-8
12 plum tomatoes
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 seedless cucumbers, skin on, cut into 1-inch chunks
1 red bell pepper, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 yellow bell pepper, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 red orange pepper, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 red onion, cut into 1-inch pieces
6 scallions, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces
2 to 3 cups tomato juice
3 tablespoons white wine, champagne, or white balsamic vinegar
Hot sauce to taste
Nutrition information per serving: 137 calories; 44 calories from fat; 5 g fat (1 g saturated; 0 g trans fats); 0 mg cholesterol; 464 mg sodium; 22 g carbohydrate; 4 g fiber; 10 g sugar; 4 g protein.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 37 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.