Seasonal Recipe: Summer Gazpacho

Wild River Wellness partners with, Chef John Schaal to offer our one-of-a-kind Food Is Your Medicine programs. Spots are limited and highly sought after. Chef John specializes in locally sourced, seasonally inspired, healthy and delicious custom weekly meal prep services, dinner parties, classes and intimate catered events. He generously shared his go-to Summer Gazpacho recipe with us so we could share it with you all! 

Summer Gazpacho
Serves 6-8 as an appetizer, starter or snack
Prep time: 15 min; Chill time: 2 hours or more
 
Ingredients
~2 lbs summer tomatoes**
1 sweet red pepper** or Anaheim, seeds removed coarsely chopped
1 large cucumber, peeled, seeded and chopped
½ small, mild or sweet onion, peeled and coarsely chopped
1 clove garlic
2 teaspoons sherry vinegar
½ cup mild olive oil (can use a blend of avocado, grapeseed or another neutral tasting oil as well)
Salt to taste
Optional garnish: fresh basil, drizzle of olive oil, sliced cucumber, pumpkin seeds
 
Method
Blanch or broil tomatoes to remove skin. For blanching, place tomatoes in boiling water for 30 seconds. Remove and transfer to an ice bath or allow to cool on a plate. Skin should slide off. To broil, place tomatoes under the broiler for about 1-2 minutes until the skin starts to split. Remove tomatoes from the broiler and remove the skins once cool. Add to a high speed blender with the pepper, cucumber, onion, and garlic. Blend at high speed until very smooth, 1-2 minutes. Add the vinegar and salt. Turn the blender to ½ speed and slowly add the olive oil, allowing to emulsify. If the consistency is thin, add up to a ¼ cup more olive oil until texture is creamy. Chill. Before serving, taste and add more salt or vinegar to your liking.

If you'd like to learn more about Chef John's services or contact him for your next stress free foodie gathering follow this link. 
 
Notes:
**Buy these veggies organic/no-spray when possible as they are higher on the EWG's Dirty Dozen list of produce, meaning they have high levels of pesticide residue when grown conventionally. Many vendors on Freshlist and at our local Farmer's Market are a great source for the produce found in this recipe. Some of our favorites who grow a variety of peppers, tomatoes and cucumbers are Bluebird Farm and A Way of Life Farm. If you can't get them organic, don't fret- soak produce (fully submerge) in a solution of 1 oz baking soda to 100 oz of water (~2 tsp baking soda/quart of water) for 15 minutes and rinse with warm water to reduce surface pesticide residue.