Chunky Garden Gazpacho

Recipe developed & contributed by Maureen Gualtieri

Gazpacho – the Iberian summer soup of blended raw vegetables – channels the taste of a whole garden into spoonable form! This ice-cold treat is made for blazing hot days, when even the thought of firing up the stove is blasphemy.  DFC’s Subtly Sweet & Tangy Not Just BBQ Sauce has your back here; it brings complex flavour with a minimum of effort (and sweat). If you’re lucky enough to have a producing garden, source as many ingredients as you can from there. (But if, like me, your tomatoes and peppers have been weirdly cranky this year, no worries: Just pick the best looking stuff from the shop.) Enjoy with crusty bread, cheese, and white wine – outside, if you can!

Chunky Garden Gazpacho

(Yield: 4 servings)

3 medium garden or vine-ripened tomatoes, diced

1 /2 English cucumber, diced

1 medium green bell pepper, diced

1 medium red bell pepper, quartered

1 handful baby spinach

2 sprigs each of fresh basil, oregano, and parsley, finely chopped

3 cloves fresh garlic

1 /3 c high-quality olive oil

2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

scant 1 /4 c DFC’s  Subtly Sweet & Tangy Not Just BBQ Sauce (“Carolina sauce”)

2 c tomato juice

Salt & pepper to taste

Lemon wedges and more fresh herbs, for garnish

 

Place red pepper quarters, baby spinach, garlic cloves, and tomato juice into the pitcher of your blender. (If you have more than one pitcher size, go as big as possible!) Blitz until smooth.

Add in diced cucumber, green pepper, tomatoes, fresh herbs, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and Carolina sauce, and pulse blender until the desired level of chunkiness is reached. Adjust seasonings – including Carolina sauce – to taste.

Pour the gazpacho into a non-reactive sealable container, and refrigerate for at least 3 hours, preferably overnight. (The flavour will improve the longer the gazpacho rests!) Serve very cold with a lemon wedge and more chopped fresh herbs on top.

Ingredients
Gazpacho is a simple soup that requires these fresh ingredients: tomatoes, fresh garlic, green and red bell peppers, English cucumber, baby spinach, fresh herbs, balsamic vinegar, tomato juice, high-quality olive oil, and DFC’s Subtly Sweet & Tangy Not Just BBQ Sauce.
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