Requested Recipe: Gazpacho

Here’s a master recipe for the Gazpacho – cold fresh tomato soup – served at Diana Weaver’s farewell luncheon last week. The recipe is extremely flexible, and a great way to take advantage of the summer bounty. For the version we served, I substituted about equal parts of a spicy Bloody Mary bar mix and no-salt tomato juice for the canned tomato juice in the recipe. I probably used more cucumbers than called for because we have them coming out of our ears! And I added avocado and fresh herbs to the garnishes because everything tastes better with fresh herbs and avocado. If you don’t care what the soup looks like, you can do all the chopping with a food processor, but hand-chopping the garnishes improves the texture and color. Tip: don’t substitute green pepper for red pepper in the puree or the mixture will turn an unappetizing brown.