Gazpacho

Dinner was a very nice affair last night with my friends Katelyn and Craig.  Katelyn was kind enough to make Gazpacho with a bevy of farm fresh vegetables.  I made Black Bean Cakes with Coconut-Lime Shrimp.  And then Katelyn served a wonderful chocolate tart.  Everything was delicious.  Let’s start with the Gazpacho:

Gazpacho

3 cups chopped tomato

1 cup cucumber, peeled, seeded, and coarsely chopped

1/2 red bell pepper, coarsely chopped

1/2 yellow bell pepper, coarsely chopped

1/2 cup sweet onion, finely chopped

1/2 cup celery, coarsely chopped

1/2 T olive oil

1/2 T horseradish

1/2 T balsamic vinegar

1/2 T rice vinegar

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

2 cups vegetable or tomato juice

1 clove garlic minced

Nonfat plain yogurt

Cilantro, chopped

Avocado, chopped

In a large bowl, combine all ingredients except the yogurt, cilantro, and avocado.  Garnish as you like with the remaining ingredients. 

Gazpacho is an essence of summer dish that highlights great tomatoes at their peak.  Their incomparable sweet and complex flavor is complemented in this dish with crunchy bell peppers, sweet onion, and celery.  This base of flavors and textures is then heightened with some heat in the form of horseradish as well as some acidity in the form of rice and balsamic vinegar.  The garnishes added some great flavor as well as some visual appeal.  Not only is this dish absolutely delicious, it is incomparably healthy.  Note the almost total lack of fat in the dish (aside from the avocadoes).  I also really liked that all of the vegetables retained their individual character.  Some gazpachos are processed in a food process which does produce a more uniform texture but at the sacrifice of some individuality of the ingredients.  Not so in this recipe, each vegetable remains distinct and lends its individuality to the dish while still playing its part in the dish.  Here’s a picture: