Moosewood Cookbook Farmer's Market Gazpacho

I've posted recipes before from, The Moosewood Cookbook by Mollie Katzen (my favorite). But all it would take is one look at my book's tattered corners and food-splattered pages and you would be able to scratch and taste the love. I really need to move on and spread the love to some of my other cookbooks, but I just can't manage to break the ties. I always come back for more.

So I am very excited to be a part of Jemangelaville's week-end cookbook challenge in which the only rules are to make a recipe out of a cookbook made with ingredients that you purchased from a Farmer's Market. I thought about branching out and making the Chilled Cucumber Yogurt Soup or even the Cream of Summer Green Soup. But I have issues with change, so am sticking with the tried and true. I love making this soup at least once a summer. You may even call it a summer tradition.

I go to the farmer's market every weekend. You should try to find one near you too. They make me feel 1) social 2) good for supporting local farms and businesses and 3) green because I bring my own bags. Last Saturday morning, I packed up the family and headed to the Cherry Creek Farmer's Market, narrowly making it with 15 minutes to spare. This is the best time to go as the crowds have died down and vendors are more willing to cut you a better deal on the veggies. Wasting no time, I ran through grabbing all the ingredients needed for Gazpacho.

Everything pictured here totalled $17! A total steal. The only items I won't be using in the recipe are the broccoli, summer squash, zucchini, and green beans which are for Hadley. But that is another cookbook and another post that requires steaming, ice cube trays, and the magic bullet.

Here are the ingredients:
4C cold tomato juice
1 small well-minced onion
2C fresh diced tomatoes
1C minced green pepper
1 tsp honey
1 clove crushed garlic
1 diced cucumber
2 scallions, chopped
juice of 1/2 lemon and 1 lime
2 TBL wine vinegar
1 tsp each tarragon and basil
dash of ground cumin
1/4C fresh chopped parsley
dash of tabasco sauce
2 TBL olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Now here's the best part, are you ready? Combine all ingredients. No seriously that's it. Then you throw it in the fridge and let it chill for two hours while you go watch the new Batman movie, or mow your lawn or something.

Ok, since I'm not ready to let you go yet, here's a few little tricks that I like to do. First, I take the seeds out of the cucumber with a grapefruit spoon.

This is not necessary and I usually don't do it. But I had some extra time today so why not.

Next, depending on how lazy you are, there are several ways to mince/dice the ingredients. If you are a super fast fancy chef-like chopper with a good knife, then good for you. Give yourself a pat on the back, but make sure you take that knife out of your hand first!

But if you are like me, you need to whip this up fast because you are so hungry you're about to start dipping into that ciabatta bread you bought, and ruin your dinner. So your other choice is to use a Cuisinart. Just toss the whole kit-and-caboodle in there and don't stop until it's all minced, because this soup can be pureed as well. Me, I chose the middle option, my Pampered Chef chopper. This is a speedy way to get the mince/dice I want without having to clean the whole Cuisinart.

On another green note, make sure you take all your scraps out to the compost pile.


But that's it, combine all of the ingredients in a bowl and serve as a first course of a light summer meal or pair it with other things.


It's really good with a slice of crusty bread. I bought ciabatta at the farmer's market for $1. I paired it with shrimp cocktail because it's Saturday and my fridge was empty for the week, but I had pre-cooked shrimp in the freezer. Voila, a perfectly cool ending for a 98 degree day.