i’m always looking for easy and healthy dishes i can make in volume and eat for lunch all week at work. this “semi homemade” gazpacho was a hit and turned out good enough to serve to guests!
in my experience, gazpacho – a cold vegetable soup – is pretty much infinitely variable. usually it’s got a tomato base, plus peppers, onion and cucumber. some recipes call for bread crumbs (for texture) and the other night at a restaurant i even tried a “white” gazpacho that had grapes and smokes mussels in it. (good idea, bad execution)
also, in my experience, texture differs, so it’s up to you to make it how you want it. sometimes it is very smooth, other times it’s more chunky. i like somewhere in the middle.
anyway, i was taking shortcuts, so i started with a quart of trader joe’s garden vegetable soup, two tomatoes, a cucumber, an onion and a red pepper.

i added two cups of water to the tj’s soup.

then i blended one tomato, half the cucumber, half the onion and half the pepper in my food processor until they were fairly finely chopped, although not completely liquid.
then i cut the remaining vegetables into smaller-than-bite-sized chunks and added them to the soup, as well.

if you like smoother gazpacho, blend all the vegetables.
then i added a few shakes of worchestershire sauce, salt, pepper and red wine vinegar to taste (about two teaspoons, depending on how tangy you like your soup).
[turns out i forgot to take an "after" picture! i'm losing my touch!]
it traveled to work nicely in tupperware and didn’t even need to be heated up. i took some chips to have with it, but a nice crusty roll would have worked too.










