Summertime is gazpacho time! What is gazpacho you say? Well, it is a Spanish invention to use up all those homegrown tomatoes you can’t give away before they go bad, and it’s a cool alternative to slaving over a hot stove! Plus, if your laundry detergent is doing the same thing to your clothes as mine (all my clothes are shrinking!) you are looking for reduced calorie answers!  It’s cold tomato soup.

It probably is better to peel the tomatoes, by dropping them in boiling water for a minute to slip their skins off the easy way. Then with your blender grind up tomatoes, green bell peppers, onions, garlic, cucumbers, olive oil and ice water with salt. I use about 3 to 5 tomatoes, half an onion, a peeled seeded cucumber, a couple cloves of garlic and one green bell pepper. Then drizzle in a few tablespoons of olive oil, a cup of ice cold water, and salt to taste. Put the purée in the fridge for an hour or so, then when you come in from sweating and the barn, pour a cup, sit down in your favorite rocking chair in the breeze on the porch and sip it. You will be rejuvenated! Play around and experiment with the recipe, make it your own.