Summer Gazpacho Two Ways

This cold vegetable soup is the perfect remedy for hot summer days when you can barely imagine eating much less turning on the oven to cook. There are probably as many ways of making it as there are cooks in the world, but this recipe focuses on the ingredients that came in the box this week.

My favorite advice for doing gazpacho "right" is to run each vegetable through the food processor or blender separately, which I learned from Ina Garten. Having tried this tip, I will never waver from it again as it processes each vegetable while preserving the necessary "chunkiness." Blending them together all at once leaves you with the dreaded "tomato smoothie."

A traditional method for making a heartier, more pureed gazpacho included blending day-old bread into the soup, like this one from Martha Stewart.

Here, I've prepared the gazpacho both ways: First the chunkier version, without the bread; then smoother version, with the bread.

Tips:

I try to make my gazpacho a day in advance to give the flavors time to develop.

This soup is perfect for using up those precious heirloom tomatoes that you have allowed to become overripe.

Summer Gazpacho, Two Ways

2 large heirloom tomatoes, roughly chopped
2 stalks celery, finely diced
3 small peppers, cored and seeded and roughly chopped
1 red onion, finely diced
1 cucumber, seeded and roughly chopped, but not peeled
1 garlic clove, minced
3 cups canned tomato juice
1/4 cup white wine vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
1 teaspoons ground sea salt
Ground pepper to taste
Chopped basil for garnish
*Optional: 1 to 2 cups stale bread, cut into 1-inch chunks

Step 1: Chop the vegetables, keeping them separate. Run each vegetable separately through a food processor or a blender (on the lowest setting), until each is coarse and chunky but not pureed. Then, add all of the vegetables to a large serving bowl.

Step 2: Combine vegetable mixture with the olive oil, white wine vinegar, tomato juice, and garlic. Stir well, then add salt and pepper to taste. Chill, if possible, for a day to allow the flavors to develop. Add chopped basil just before serving.

*Optional: If your prefer a heartier, more smooth soup, add the stale bread cubes in between Step 1 and Step 2. Then, before you season and chill the soup, run the whole mixture through your blender on a medium setting. If it is too thick, simply add more tomato juice until it is the consistency desired. Example below.