Just in case you missed my blog swap posting over at Meeta’s place here is the recipe I posted.

Since the whole of Europe has been sweltering under a heatwave for the past couple of weeks, the theme for the Monthly Mingle is very appropriately “Beat The Heat”, in addition we decided to use this theme for our blog swap.

I got my thinking cap on and and tried to identify which ingredients really screamed summer sun to me. I didn’t have far to look for inspiration. My tomato plants on the balcony are in full bloom and within the next couple of weeks I will have a glut of tomatoes on my hands. What can be more summery than tomatoes?

So now I had my main ingredient in mind, what would help “Beat The Heat” ?

Gazpacho!! Delicious chilled soup of tomatoes, cucumber, peppers, here goes..

GAZPACHO

INGREDIENTS

• 2 Cloves garlic, chopped roughly
• 1 Red onion, chopped roughly
• 1 Green pepper, chopped roughly
• 1/2 Cucumber (1 cup), peeled, seeded and chopped roughly
• 750ml (3 cups) Passata or tomato juice
• 1 Cup chicken stock (you could use veg stock to make this a vegetarian dish)
• 1 Tbsp Extra virgin olive oil
• 1 Tsp White wine vinegar
• 1/2 Tsp Salt
• 1/2 Tsp Black pepper
• 1/2 Avocado (optional)

PREPARATION

1. Place all the ingredients into a food processor and blitz until smooth.
2. Chill well in the fridge for a minimum of 1 hour but preferrably overnight as the flavours develop over time.
3. As a twist I took 500ml of the final gazpacho and added half a ripe avocado, the two were blitzed until smooth in a food processor. Two different versions of gazpacho to be enjoyed on a hot summer day! Enjoy!
4. I garnished the soup with a sprig of fresh corriander and home made croutons.

In the picture at the top of the screen the soup on the right is the one enriched with avocado and the one on the right is the traditional gazpacho.

Fanny at Food Beam is hosting this month’s round of Does My Blog Look Good In This #8, I liked the way this recipe turned out and I love this double dish so I decided to submit this post.
blog swap #2 recipe food food & drink DMBLGIT