Watermelon Gazpacho ( Gluten Free! )

I’m gonna confess something here.  I don’t really like soup. Soup does not excite me.  I love making soup, but I will never be ecstatic about soup.  I also don’t have a big crush on cold tomato stuff.  I like tomatoes just fine.  Love a well made marinara or bolognese with my pasta… a ripe, still warm-from-the-sun garden tomato… and I can vibe on some pico de gallo if it’s done well with the right amount of minced onions and extra cilantro.  (Bonus points if it’s served along side a perfectly seared skirt steak.) BUT… I’m just not crazy about tomatoes in most other ways.

So why am I sharing  a recipe for a cold, tomato soup?

Because, I like to live dangerously, ya’ll.

This is a Watermelon Gazpacho, and is is the best gazpacho I’ve ever had.  (Says the girl who doesn’t like gazpacho.) I served it for Father’s Day and it got rave reviews.  So now you get to hear about it!  Hooray!

This is also one of the easiest recipes I’ve ever posted.  (Almost as easy as the Peach Caprese I posted last week.)  Because, isn’t that what we want in the summertime?  Fall and Winter are for braising and making your home smell like food love.  Summer is for as little effort as necessary, light, and fresh, and EASY!

You’re literally just dumping things in a bowl, letting it sit overnight or all day to ‘marinate’, and then blending it up with some more yummy flavors.  The watermelon gives the soup such a lovely sweetness and brightness, and pairs so well with the tomato, basil and onion.  And traditionally gazpacho is made using bread.  (It’s what thickens the soup a bit and keeps it from separating.) But, I didn’t have any white bread around and thought I could improvise with another option.  (You know how I love to improvise.)  I thought for a second about other things that could thicken… I looked in my pantry… hmm….

ALMOND BUTTER!

Ya’ll.  I am a genius.  (Also modest.)

This was SO DAMN GOOD!  The almond butter gives it structure and depth and richness.  And I asked my family if they could taste the secret ingredient in it and nobody could… but after I told them, they all went, ‘Ohhh… yeah!  Now I taste it!’.  So it may sound weird to you, blending almond butter into watermelon and tomato for a cold soup.  I get that.  Totally understood. But look- is blended up bread any less weird?  Nope.

Trust me, this is a fantastic no-cook summer recipe.  The only thing I’ll warn you about is that I am giving you approximations on some ingredients (mainly the almond butter. eek.  sorry).  But I would think by now you know that I do that.  I make things up as I go, and cannot be bothered with perfectly measuring the amount of onion I just added.  And I also do it in hopes that you’ll learn to taste your food as you go, and make things your own.  Use my recipes as guidelines and have them become YOUR perfect dish.

So. Off you go, little lovelies.  Go make you some Watermelon Gazpacho and think of me fondly when you do.

Happy Saturday, ya’ll!  xo

WATERMELON GAZPACHO ( GLUTEN FREE! )

In a large, glass bowl, combine the following…

• 28 ounce can of the best whole, peeled, plum tomatoes you can find (tomatoes and juice)
• enough fresh watermelon chunks to fill that can 2X (rounded / overfilling)
• about 1/4 cup vidalia onion slices
• good glug of red wine vinegar
• big pinches of kosher salt
• 1 TB sugar, (maybe more if needed later)

Mix this all up and cover.  Set in the fridge, covered, overnight or all day – 8 hours is good.

Using your immersion blender, blend everything until smooth.  Taste and adjust the salt and sugar, if necessary.

Add in…

• 1/3- 1/2 cup almond butter… or whatever was left in the bottom of my jar 😉 (and I had natural, roasted and salted)
• ~1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• handful fresh basil leaves 

Puree again, making sure to break down the almond butter and spread it around completely… and I like to see flecks of green from the basil, so I try to stop at that point.

Taste and check seasoning again, just to be sure… If it doesn’t have enough richness, add more olive oil or almond butter and puree again.

Serve cold in bowls or glasses of any kind.

It keeps well in the fridge for about a week!