Gazpacho

I always thought soup was something that was to be served hot, or at the very least, warm. Turns out cold soup can be quite refreshing, especially on a hot September evening.  I made Gazpacho on one such occasion.

Before I start the soup process, take a moment to appreciate this gorgeous tomato that's been ripening in the kitchen window for the last couple of weeks. It was deep green when it first came home, but now it's sorta tie-dye. So groovy.

I started the soup by measuring out tomato juice.

This soup required a ton of chopping, which was tough on my hands. Onion, garlic, bell pepper, cucumber, green onion, and parsley were all minced and added to the bowl.

Other delights that went in: honey, lemon and lime juice, red wine vinegar, tarragon, basil, cumin, olive oil, cayenne, and the aforementioned hippie tomato.  Everything got mixed up and chilled.

The soup had a very strong flavor, similar to salsa.  I didn't like it very much, but Charlie enjoyed it.  He reminded me that it counts as a veggie! 

Tomato Salsa

A long time ago, my friend Sarah Jurado wrote about making homemade pico de gallo. It sounded so romantic and foreign to me at the time ... "You mean you have to buy all of the ingredients separately? And then you chop them up!?" I guess I've come a long way since then. Now I can't imagine life without everything homemade!

So today I made Tomato Salsa. It's the third and final salsa from The New Moosewood Cookbook.  I started by gathering the necessary ingredients:

I did make an adjustment to this recipe ... there were no cumin seeds in sight so I substituted ground cumin instead.  It worked well.

The tomato was skinned and seeded. The segments reminded me of lips. Creepy.

Everything got chopped up and mixed together. At the last moment, I added a minced jalapeno to the salsa. Super spicy, just the way I like it!

See the other two components in this trifecta of salsa here:
Mango Salsa
Pineapple Salsa

Tomato Curry and Apple Chutney

Bean and I made Tomato Curry and Apple Chutney together the other night. We both love curry and chutney is something we had never attempted before.

We started by chopping lots of produce... apples for the chutney, onion, garlic, ginger, tomato, bell pepper, and cilantro for the curry. I can still hear the sound of the knife against the cutting board.

We heated apples with garlic, fresh ginger, cinnamon, cloves, salt, brown sugar, cider vinegar, and cayenne. The apples simmered over low heat for almost an hour until they were super soft and fragrant. Bean declared that they smelled like autumn, and I agreed.


The tomato curry also has a wonderful conglomerate of spices. Mustard seeds, freshly grated ginger, cinnamon, cumin, coriander, and cayenne all seasoned the pot. The mix of veggies and spices simmered down with tomato puree. I thought the curry was a little runny, so we turned up the heat and this worked well for thickening the dinner.

The curry was spicy and fresh. It tasted beautiful over a bed of brown basmati rice. We served the chutney hot, as I simply couldn't wait to try it. It was a sweet contrast to the curry and the apples were perfectly softened. I'd like to try making it again and see what it tastes like cold.