Tavern Gazpacho

from The Black Dog: Summer on the Vineyard Cookbook
by Joseph Hall & Elaine Sullivan

When temps heat up, who wants to turn on the oven, stove, or even the grill? Certainly not me!

After I heard that it was going to be in the triple digits the following day, I decided it was going to be ice-cold gazpacho for dinner.

Gazpacho is a cold soup made up of raw vegetables and tomato juice.

This really could not be any simpler to make. You take a bunch (three pounds to be exact) of tomatoes, red onion, cucumber, red bell pepper, scallions, and celery, and chop everything up into small diced pieces. Toss into a large bowl or container and add some tomato juice (I like to use V8 - Spicy Hot), red wine vinegar, olive oil, Tabasco, some fresh basil, Worcestershire sauce and some salt (I omit the salt, for I find the V8 is salty enough on its own) and pepper. Give it a stir, and chill for several hours - preferably overnight.

Bam! You have dinner ready. How simple is that? Not to mention delicious!

This is the only gazpacho recipe I have made, and I think it is absolutely wonderful. 

Funny, I got this recipe from my sister, who has made other recipes in the past, and this is her favorite. The funny part is, she got it from my daughter, who got it on-line, then to find out I have the cookbook the recipe came from!

Do give this recipe a try. It really is refreshing on a hot day, and it's healthy to boot!

You can find the recipe on page 55 of The Black Dog: Summer on the Vineyard, or by clicking here.

The recipe calls for one quart of tomato juice. I always buy extra to add to the leftovers. Also, the recipe states it will serve six. That would be very generous portions. I placed my soup in a container with marked measurements, it registered at just over four quarts. I'm thinking this will serve closer to eight.