Pink Parsley

Better late than never, right? I actually made this recipe early, but with the craziness that was last week, never got around to posting.

I've made gazpacho once before, and I pretty much just winged it. It tasted good, but I thought it had the texture of salsa. Adding the tomato juice and olive oil really turned it into a soup. I put my own spin on Ina's version, adding some fresh herbs, and leaving some of the veggies coarsely chopped to add in at the end. I also didn't add as much tomato juice. The first time I served it, I used crackers to dip into the soup, and when we had it with dinner, I roasted some shrimp and topped it with some freshly shaved Parmesan. My changes are reflected below.

Thanks to Meryl of My Bit of Earth for choosing this recipe. It was refreshing, light, and delicious.

Gazpacho
Serves 4-5

• 1 hothouse cucumber, halved and seeded, but not peeled
• 2 red bell peppers, cored and seeded
• 4 plum tomatoes
• 1 red onion
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 cups tomato juice
• 1/4 cup white wine vinegar
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 2 teaspoons each fresh basil, parsley, and oregano
• juice of one lemon

Roughly chop the cucumber, bell peppers, tomatoes, and red onions into 1-inch cubes. Set aside 1/4 cup of each vegetable. Put each vegetable separately into a food processor, and process until it is coarsely chopped. Do not overprocess!

After each vegetable is processed, combine them in a large bowl and add the reserved vegetables, garlic, tomato juice, vinegar, olive oil, salt, pepper, herbs, and lemon juice. Mix weland chill before serving. The longer the gazpacho sits, the more the flavors develop. Top with