It's "Latino Nuevo Night" at the Keeley's dinner party for two neighborhood couples/friends. Dinner tonight will be a blend of Latino specialties- Mexican, Cuban, Spanish, and Southwesten style. As I prepare some of our foods in advance, I'll upload them onto this blog, starting with my Gazpacho which I just finished making. This is such a delicious and healthy "liquid salad". Now ordinarily, I make gazpacho with the fresh vegetables from my garden, but it's mid May in Maine, and we don't even have the garden in yet! So, if you have a farmer's market nearby- terrific. If not, I'm afraid you will have to resort to supermarket veggies like I did for my dinner party tonight. The veggies on my list are ones I use. Choose what you have available but make sure you have carrots, celery, onion, cucumber, and at least one pepper. The others are really optional.
My gazpacho has gone through several iterations until I have it just the way I like it. It is one of my favorite foods to bring when we have summer potluck lunches or dinners. It's also a great way to clean out your produce tray! If you want to be a purist, make your own tomato base. But quite honestly, I found Mrs. T's Spicy Bloody Mary Mix to be the best base, especially the one with horseradish if you like it spicy hot. I use a small Cuisinart food processor to chop/grind all my ingredients but make sure you chop the avocado pieces by hand and add them in last. You can also add other available ingredients such as spinach, watercress, scallions, kale, cilantro, parsley, and chopped tomatoes. I don't add additional spices and herbs as I want to bring out the flavor of the veggies as much as possible. Try to keep the size of the chopped ingredients the same. Also, chill it for several hours so the flavors will deepen before serving.
Page's Garden Gazpacho
1 bottle of Mrs. T's Spicy Bloody Mary Mix (I like the one with horseradish)
2 T Worcestershire sauce
2 T Extra virgin olive oil
juice from half a lime
2 large cucumbers
1 medium zucchini
1/2 green pepper
1 red pepper
1/2 yellow pepper
5 carrots
1/2 large red onion
5 stalks celery (preferably with leaves on)
3 large cloves chopped garlic
5 large radishes
1 avocado (optional)
Salt and pepper to taste
Start with half the bottle of Mrs. T's. Put the liquid ingredients into a large bowl or container and stir together. Pulse each of the vegetables until chopped and stir into liquid mixture. Stir together thoroughly and add more Mrs. T's until you get the consistency you like (gazpacho should be thick), and chill for several hours before serving. Optional: before serving, top with chopped avocado.
Comments
Post a Comment