Summer Cooking: Gazpacho Recipe

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Nancy Fox brings delightfully tasteful and skinny recipes straight to you at SkinnyKitchen.com. This recipe for gazpacho was originally featured there.

When you’re in the mood for soup but it’s just too hot to go with your standard favorites, gazpacho is the perfect solution. Gazpacho is a light and refreshing soup from Spain.

This uncooked vegetable soup is usually made from a pureed blend of fresh tomatoes, sweet peppers, onions, cucumbers, garlic, olive oil, vinegar and bread crumbs or soaked crumbled bread.

There are so many ways to make gazpacho. It’s said that if you had thirty Spanish cooks in the kitchen, there would be thirty different versions! I’m using a quick step of sautéing the garlic first in olive oil before adding to the blender of veggies. This really enhances the fresh garlic flavor.

In addition, I’m serving it with a medley of chopped vegetables for garnish. You might be wondering why this gazpacho’s a blush color instead of a vivid red. It’s due to using yellow sweet peppers, which soften the color.

With just 101 calories a cup, 2.5 grams of fat and 3 Weight Watchers POINTS PLUS, this soup is a delicious and simple way to eat a ton of veggies in one fell swoop!

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Chill Time: at least 1 hour

Ingredients for Gazpacho:

2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil

3 large garlic cloves, minced

6 large ripe tomatoes, peeled and chopped

1 yellow bell pepper, cored, seeded and chopped

1 yellow onion, peeled and chopped

1 large cucumber, peeled and chopped

¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar

1 slice whole wheat bread, wheat sourdough, regular sourdough, French bread, crusts removed, soaked in water and squeezed dry

½ teaspoon salt, or to taste

½ teaspoon fresh ground pepper or to taste

Several drops of Tabasco, to taste

Ingredients for Toppings:

1½ cups cherry or grape tomatoes, quartered

½ cup yellow bell pepper, chopped

½ cup cucumber, peeled and chopped

½ cup scallions or onions chopped

Instructions

1. In a small nonstick pan, heat olive oil. Add minced garlic and sauté about 1 minute until slightly brown.

2. In a large bowl, mix together tomatoes, yellow peppers, onions, cucumbers, vinegar, bread, sautéed garlic and oil.

3. In batches, puree mixture in the blender until very smooth. Pour into a large bowl.

4. Season with salt, pepper and Tabasco to taste.

5. Place in refrigerator and chill for at least 1 hour or overnight.

6. Chop topping vegetables and store in refrigerator until ready to serve.

7. To serve ladle each serving into a small bowl. Top each with the variety of chopped vegetables. Or, bring all the veggies to the table, and let everybody top their own.

Makes 6 servings (1 cup each)

Food Facts:

Gazpacho originated in the southern region of Andalusia, Spain. The Spanish call gazpacho, “Salad.”

Dating back to 1824, in an old cookbook called The Virginia Housewife; Mary Randolph included a recipe for gazpacho. Her recipe was probably the first gazpacho recipe published in America.

Healthy Benefits:

Yellow peppers are an excellent source of vitamin C and contain a fair amount of vitamin A and calcium.

Cucumbers are over 90% water. They contain a significant amount of vitamin C and potassium.

Tomatoes are extremely rich in antioxidants especially Lycopene as well as vitamins A, C, and K.

Scallions contain a significant amount of vitamin C and some B6.

Weight Watchers (old points) 1
Weight Watchers POINTS PLUS 3

SKINNY FACTS: for 1 serving (1 cup each)
102 calories, 2.5g fat, 4g protein, 20g carbs, 4g fiber, 145mg sodium, 2g sugar

FAT FACTS: The skinny and fat facts are the same for this recipe!