Watermelon Gazpacho
Description
When it’s too hot to turn on the oven, gazpacho to the rescue! Loaded with vegetables and spiked with fresh lime and vinegar, this chilled summer soup is so refreshing. Note: It does require a fair amount of chopping but it yields a ton, and because there’s no cooking, it’s done when the chopping is complete.
Ingreadient :
- 1 watermelon roughly 5 lbs, peeled, see notes above
- 1 cucumber, peeled, seeded, diced (about 2 cups)
- 1 red bell pepper, seeded, diced (about 1.5 cup)
- 1 pint yellow cherry or sungold tomatoes, halved (about 2 cups)
- 1 small jalapeño chile, seeded, minced
- 4 pale green inner celery stalks, diced (about 1 cup)
- ½ small red onion, diced (about 1 cup)
- 1/3 cup fresh lime juice, from about 3 limes
- 2 to 4 tablespoons white balsamic vinegar (or any vinegar you have on hand)
- 1 teaspoon flaky sea salt, such as Maldon, or more or less to taste
- a few sprigs of mint
- avocado, optional, for garnish
- olive oil, optional, for garnish
Direction :
- Puree enough watermelon in a blender or food processor to yield 5 cups watermelon purée. Dice enough watermelon to yield 4 cups. Transfer purée to a large bowl. Add the diced watermelon, cucumber, peppers, tomatoes, jalapeño, celery, onion, lime juice, 2 tablespoons of the vinegar, salt, and mint sprigs. Stir to combine. Taste. Adjust with more lime, vinegar, or salt to taste. Cover gazpacho and refrigerate until cold, at least 1 hour and up to 4 hours.
- Remove gazpacho from fridge. Taste. Adjust seasoning again if necessary. Divide gazpacho among bowls. If garnishing with the avocado, dice it up, and top each bowl with diced avocado. Drizzle with olive oil if you wish.
