We went over to my mom's house for dinner last night. My mom lives in the Gulf region, and the moment after the very moment she heard reports of the BP oil spill, she bought every shrimp available and treated them to a deep freeze. This meant garlic shrimp for dinner. After debating whether the toddler could eat shrimp (we decided no), I remembered that I had planned to make gazpacho as my final tomato dish. Perfect! A Spanish-themed dinner. What could go wrong?
Well, upon arriving at my mom's house, I discovered that she owns neither a blender nor a regular sized food processor. Ack! How did people make soup in the dark ages? There was a brief moment of panic until my mom produced a mini-chopper. Improvisation set in, and the result was a light, fresh-tasting, and chunky, chilled tomato soup.
4 large tomatoes
1 tsp minced garlic
1 yellow pepper
1/2 hothouse cucumber
1 lemon, juiced
1 tsp (or so) olive oil
salt
pepper
some cilantro (of course, I didn't measure a thing)
When I started making the soup, I tried peeling the tomatoes. I abandoned this task, though, because my mom also does not own any knives sharper than a spoon except for a ginormous steel blade that looks like it could gut a crocodile. So, I chopped the tomatoes and pureed a little less than half until it was just liquid. I then dumped everything into a large bowl.
Next, I chopped a yellow pepper and then pureed about 1/4 of it until it was mostly liquid. I also chopped the cucumber in small pieces, and then added both the yellow pepper and cucumber to the tomatoes.
Finally, I added the lemon juice, the olive oil, salt, pepper, and the cilantro. We chilled it for only like 15 minutes before we decided to just eat it.
The verdict: excellent! The end result was definitely a cross between soup and salsa, but it had enough soupiness to please everyone. The spouse even had a seconds in lieu of eating more shrimp. I'm speechless.
Well, upon arriving at my mom's house, I discovered that she owns neither a blender nor a regular sized food processor. Ack! How did people make soup in the dark ages? There was a brief moment of panic until my mom produced a mini-chopper. Improvisation set in, and the result was a light, fresh-tasting, and chunky, chilled tomato soup.
4 large tomatoes
1 tsp minced garlic
1 yellow pepper
1/2 hothouse cucumber
1 lemon, juiced
1 tsp (or so) olive oil
salt
pepper
some cilantro (of course, I didn't measure a thing)
When I started making the soup, I tried peeling the tomatoes. I abandoned this task, though, because my mom also does not own any knives sharper than a spoon except for a ginormous steel blade that looks like it could gut a crocodile. So, I chopped the tomatoes and pureed a little less than half until it was just liquid. I then dumped everything into a large bowl.
Next, I chopped a yellow pepper and then pureed about 1/4 of it until it was mostly liquid. I also chopped the cucumber in small pieces, and then added both the yellow pepper and cucumber to the tomatoes.
Finally, I added the lemon juice, the olive oil, salt, pepper, and the cilantro. We chilled it for only like 15 minutes before we decided to just eat it.
The verdict: excellent! The end result was definitely a cross between soup and salsa, but it had enough soupiness to please everyone. The spouse even had a seconds in lieu of eating more shrimp. I'm speechless.
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