On a Hot Summer Night...

...what could be more grand than cold gazpacho?

We have lots of very ripe tomatoes and nothing is more refreshing in the summer than a great gazpacho, imo. The best recipe I've ever cooked is from Jane Brody's Good Food Book. The cookbook is now out of print, but thanks to the wonders of the internet, you can see the actual cookbook page.

Although the recipe calls for green bell pepper, I used a red one - I love how it intensifies the red color of the soup. I used the food processor because it is on the counter and the blender is not - it turned out great.

Gazpacho Grande
Jane Brody

ingredients:
1 large cucumber, peeled, halved lengthwise, and cored to remove seeds, divided.
2 large tomatoes, peeled, cored, and seeded, divided
1 green pepper, halved and seeded, divided
1 medium onion, peeled and halved, divided
1 pimento
3 cups tomato juice, divided
1/3 c. red wine vinegar
1 tbsp. olive oil
1⁄4 tsp. hot pepper sauce (Tabasco)
1⁄4 tsp. salt if desired
1⁄4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper or more, to taste
3 to 4 garlic cloves, finely minced or crushed
Croutons for garnish (optional)

directions:
In a blender, combine half the cucumber, 1 tomato, half the green pepper, half the onion, the whole pimiento, and 1 cup of the tomato juice. Puree the ingredients at high speed.

Chop the remaining cucumber, tomato, green pepper and onion. Place the vegetables in a bowl, cover it and refrigerate it until serving time.

Pour the puree into a large serving bowl and add the remaining 2 cups tomato juice, the vinegar, oil, pepper sauce, salt, pepper and garlic. Refrigerate gazpacho, covered for at least 2 hours.

note:
nutritional info can be found here