Greg’s Gazpacho

This one is pretty damned tasty, full of vitamins, healthy as hell, and
easy. What more can you ask for? Traditional Spanish buffet or appetizer
dish, and you can use it as a poaching or soup starter mix. It’s like V8
juice but with chunks and better for you. When serving this cold soup, it’s
traditional (and it adds a little flavor and or panache) to pass lemon
slices and ice. Ice is added to cool the soup a little more, and the lemon
adds a bit more tang to the taste. You can also serve with fresh sliced
scallion greens (rings of green onions) and toasted squares of crusty bread
brushed with olive oil; if you want to make a meal of it, serve the soup
with the above accouterments and toasted garlic bread and a plate of good
cheeses along with a plate of fresh grapes and some olives.

   * 5 cloves garlic, minced and sautéed in 3 T olive oil (don’t cook until
     brown; just sauté until aromatic and limp) along with any of the dried
     herbs you might be using (below)
   * 4 medium sized, fresh, peeled and seeded tomatoes, cut into fine dice
   * 3 cups tomato juice or 1 cup tomato juice and 1-1/2 cups chicken
     broth/stock or beef stock (use tomato or fruit juice to maintain a
     totally vegetarian sort of dish)
   * Juice of one medium sized lemon
   * 1-1/2 cups cubed, day-old French bread (or some other crusty homemade
     bread)
   * 1 medium cucumber, peeled, sliced, seeded, and cubed into about ½"
     dice
   * 5 scallions, roughly chopped, green and white parts
   * 2 cups minced mixed color bell peppers
   * 2 minced hot peppers (jalapeno works fine; remove seeds and membrane
     if you don’t want hot)
   * 1 T dried basil (add to the garlic sauté if using)
   * 1 T dried oregano (add to the garlic sauté if using)
   * 2 t cayenne powder or fresh-ground black pepper
   * 3 T herb vinegar (or white vinegar if you don’t have an infused
     vinegar handy)
   * ¼ cup olive oil
   * ½ cup mixed fresh herbs, finely chopped: depending on your tastes, and
     in order of preference, use basil, dill, oregano, mint, thyme.
   * Salt and pepper to taste
   * 3 or 4 dashes of hot pepper sauce (Tabasco or whatever you like)

Sauté the garlic (and any dried herbs you might have to use) and cool with
the oil. To make regular gazpacho, you should basically puree all the above
(after you’ve sautéed and cooled the garlic oil) in a food processor or a
large blender. If you have a small food processor or blender, do it in
batches and add all the pureed batches to a large bowl and blend well.
After pureeing and blending and basically getting a soupy mixture, add

   * ¼ cup chopped fresh parsley or cilantro

and then stir well again and refrigerate. Serve after about 4 hours minimum
refrigeration for decent flavor, or, better yet, make 1-2 days ahead of
time. After 5 days or so, simmer leftovers with some tomato paste to make a
great pasta topping.

        ------------------------------------------------------------