Summer Gazpacho & Product Rave

I've posted a few gazpacho attempts on here, but I think I've finally struck gold with this recipe. Alex loves to eat gazpacho when it's hot out, and there is just something incredibly refreshing about a huge bowl of spicy fresh and cold summer flavors. Make sure you use the ripest vegetables you can find and you'll be in for a real treat!

Ingredients:

2 cups peeled and diced hothouse cucumber
2 cups diced red bell pepper
2 cups diced ripe tomato
1/2 cup diced onion
2 cups tomato juice (I used Spicy V8. SO good!)

1/2 cup red-wine vinegar
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 dashes Tabasco sauce (or more!)

Instructions:

Place all of the diced vegetables in a large bowl. Add the tomato juice, vinegar, oil, and Tabasco. Season with salt and pepper and toss.

Transfer half (we like it mostly pureed with some pieces, so I blended about 90% of the diced veggies) of the mixture to a blender or food processor and pulse the machine on and off to coarsely puree the contents. Return the pureed mixture to the bowl and stir to combine.

Refrigerate for 4 to 6 hours before serving. You can easily double this recipe for a large party.

Product Rave!

My mom introduced me to this amazing little frozen herb that Trader Joes carries in their freezer section. I *love* to cook with cilantro, but I can't use it up before the rest of it goes bad. It's so annoying. But this, I love. Andplusalso, it's Israeli, so I speak a little Hebrew when I take it out of the freezer.

Each frozen cube is 1tsp of the chopped herb (comes in garlic, cilantro and basil), and you just toss the frozen cube into your recipe as-is. Ta da!

Love!