By Melanie A. Albert, intuitive cooking expert, author, and speaker. Founder & CEO Experience Nutrition Group, LLC
Recently, I’ve been teaching public hands-on Intuitive Cooking Experience Classes at the Phoenix Public Market and The Farm at South Mountain, in Phoenix. Tonight I’m getting set to lead tomorrow’s class at the Phoenix Public Market. Lately, I’ve been really enjoying tomatoes, so tomorrow, October 15, 2016, at the Phoenix Public Market (9-11am, Central & Pierce) we will intuitively create a simple tasty, fresh tomato gazpacho soup. Looking forward to tomatoes from Abby Lee Farms, about 4-5 miles from my home.
Excerpt from A New View of Healthy Eating
Summertime Tomato Gazpacho Cold Soup
A fresh, cold tomato gazpacho is refreshing, especially on warm days. Make this quick cold tomato soup with red, orange, and yellow tomatoes and red, orange, yellow, and green bell peppers for a bright summer side dish. Be sure to try the beautiful (some may think ugly) heirloom tomatoes. If you are fortunate enough to purchase a whole flat of really ripe organic tomatoes, make a big batch of tomato gazpacho for a summertime picnic.
Simple Ingredients: Soup
- 10 medium tomatoes, cut into eighths
- 4 red, orange, yellow, and/or green bell peppers, seeded and rough chopped
- 3 cucumbers, rough chopped
- 2 jalapeno or Anaheim peppers, seeded and rough chopped
- ½ cup fresh cilantro, chopped
- ½ cup fresh lime juice
- 6-8 garlic cloves, minced
- Up to 2 cups water, if needed
- Sea salt and pepper, to taste
Simple Ingredients: Topping
- 4 tbsp cucumber, small diced
- 4 tbsp tomato, small diced
- 4 tsp cilantro leaves
Simple Steps
- Place all soup ingredients in a large bowl.
- Mix well.
- Puree half of the ingredients in a high-speed blender until smooth.
- Combine pureed soup with chopped veggies.
- Taste and season with sea salt and/or pepper.
- Top with diced cucumbers, tomatoes, and cilantro.
- Enjoy!
- Refrigerate leftover gazpacho soup and enjoy the next day for an even more flavorful soup.
Create Your Own Tomato Gazpacho
Use your intuition when you create your tomato gazpacho. Use different colors and types of tomatoes. Sometimes make it chunky; other times make it smooth. Try different levels of spiciness using jalapeno or Anaheim peppers. Sometimes make it spicy hot, sometimes make it mild. Try different types of in-season cucumbers, such Armenian, pickling, or lemon.
“The key to a beautiful tomato gazpacho is to blend some of the fresh veggies into a creamy liquid and to keep some veggies chunky.”
I’ll be selling my new book A New View of Healthy Eating, this weekend at 2 events in the Phoenix area:
- Saturday, Oct 15, 2016, Phoenix Public Market, Central & Pierce. 9am-1pm
- Sunday, Oct 16, 2016, Yoga Rocks the Park, Steele Indian School Park, Phoenix (3rd Street, North of Indian School), 9am-noon
If you are not in the Phoenix area and would like to purchase the book, it’s available on my website and I’m happy to ship a copy to you.
