Gazpacho: Using Nature's Bounty

That picture alone should be enough.  But for those who want a bit more detail, here it is.  A few weeks ago I had the best gazpacho I’ve ever had from my local coffee shop/bakery.  It had a fantastic smoky flavor that I thought was smoked paprika, but turned out to be smoked peppers.  I decided to try my hand at a version at home using smoked paprika.  The coffee shop version was a little too spicy for my taste (though I couldn’t stop eating it anyway) and I reasoned that with a combination of the hot and sweet smoked paprika I could obtain a less hot but still smoky tasting soup.

Most recipes call for similar ingredients with some variation on the seasonings.  In the picture above you can see what I used in mine.  I decided to forgo the bell peppers (for reasons involving my digestive tract which you really don’t need to know about) called for in most versions.  I didn’t measure anything.  The vegetables, tomato juice and bread went into the blender in batches.  The resulting concoction did not look or taste very appealing straight out of the blender.  Adding copious amounts of sweet and hot smoked pepper, salt, pepper and sherry vinegar helped immensely.  In the end I added some cumin as well.  This made two quarts which I plan to begin enjoying tomorrow after the flavors have had a chance to meld a bit in the fridge.  With summer produce at its height, now is the time to enjoy some of this cool and refreshing soup.  Enjoy!