It's that time of year again. Well, almost, as the tomatoes aren't quite good enough yet. Nontheless today I made my first batch of the season. Besides tomatoes, I use cucumbers, red bell peppers, just a smidge of hot pepper, onion, salt, black pepper, vinegar, sometimes chicken or vegetable stock, bread, maybe tomato juice (from a bottle). Herbs and croutons depending on whim and what's around and what else I'm serving with it.

So, how do you make gazpacho? Any interesting variations or nifty tricks?

Elizabeth" I agree, it is that time of year again. And i am resisting from making my first batch, as whatever type of tomatoes are showing up at the dupont circle farmer's market are looking and tasting pretty good already. I do all the same things as you, but I use red wine vinegar, olive oil, some tomato juice, eggs, cayenne pepper, and then lots of fresh dill. I also use a combination of yellow onions and shallots. Also, I lile my gazpacho kind of chunky, so I forget about the chinon and just use the blender.

Let me know how it turns out!

I find really good tomatos too dear to possible blend up and go straight for the juice route. Roasted red pepper, cuke, onion, garlic blended with good tomato juice, sherry vinegar, olive oil, lemon juice, hot pepper and a dash of Worchestershire and salt. Throw in finely diced cukes and onions at the end. Either serve w/ croutons in a bowl or mix 3/4 gazpacho and 1/4 red wine (Pinot, Rioja, anything really) and serve it in a red wine glass. The wine thins it enough to make it drinkable and is great first on a hot night that you only need one hand for while you're manning the grill.

Last summer, Jose Andres posted his gazpacho recipe in about a billion places online.

Here's one. I haven't made it yet, but within days the garden will produce just about every ingredient necessary, and I definitely plan on giving it a whirl.

Mine varies every time I make it. I made a blender batch an hour ago that is chilling as we speak. It consisted of leftover salad (red lettuce, romaine, tomatoes, cukes), four cooked red baby beets that were in the fridge, V-8 juice, white balsamic vinegar, olive oil, some red onion from the farmers market, a bit of lemon juice, a few drops of Choluza hot sauce, salt and pepper.

On Edit: The beets made for a dramatic deep purple, and a bit of welcome sweetness. I stirred in a splash of citrus vodka and sprinkled some crumbled feta cheese from the farmers market just before serving. There's some leftover and I'm having it tonight!

I use some chopped oregano and a scoop of lump crabmeat. It's hardly traditional, but it is a divine combination.

Likewise - mine is for dinner with steaks tomorrow. I'm thinking of making a tomato sorbet - scooped into a bowl, with soup poured around it, could be a fun presentation.

My go-to gazpacho recipe is Jacques Pepin's from his Happy Cooking book. He throws everything, including a TON of cucumber into a food processor, whizzes the whole thing up, and then strains it through the fine sieve of a food mill. Then, he adds the finely peeled and chopped ingredients to make the whole thing chunky.

I wonder how one could screw-up gazpacho. Too many hot peppers? I've actually never made an inedible gazpacho--unlike OTHER variety of foods.

I made watermelon gazpacho recently, that was very refreshing and tasty. It was an improvisation, but as I recall, the ingredients were watermelon, Vidalia onion, cucumber, jalapenõ pepper, cilantro and lime juice.

Most of those ingredients release a ton of water - did you drain liquid off after blending?

This is outstanding:

http://www.pepperfool.com/recipes/soups/creole_gazpacho.html

wow does that look good - thanks for posting it, Joe. Um, hate to betray my ignorance, but what is a creole tomato?

I didn't, but as I recall it was fine. I served it in demitasse cups as an amuse.

It's grown almost exclusively in south Louisiana. I found some at the WF on River Road a few years ago.
http://www.summersetreview.org/02fall/tomato.htm

My 11 year old and I made Jose's version the other night to pretty good success. It definitely reminded me of the gazpacho I'd had last summer at Jaleo. That said, I think I'd like to try a recipe that has a chunkier end product. Made largely in the blender, Jose's is very liquid...but quite flavorful. And the flavors were even better the next day.

That's funny - we made Jose's tonight! I diced some of the tomatos, cukes, and peppers in the bowl, and also some croutons, before pouring the soup in the bowl. So I got the very smooth soup, but still the chunkiness.

I modified the recipe slightly to add a small amount of chilis for a kick, and I had to use red wine vinegar instead of sherry vinegar, as I didn't have any in the house. It came out great, and due to the quantity of stuff coming out of the garden these days, I can make this just about every night!

have long been critical of Emeril because of the the presentation of the New York Food Network shows which present him more as an entertainer and less as a chef. Still, about ten yor more years ago I had four dinners in one week at his restaurant on Tschoupolitas (sp?) street in New Orleans including two with him behind the counter of a food counter in his restaurant. I remember on several of those nights him leaving the restaurant around midnight, totally exhausted having literally given his all to those who dined there on those nights. For my wife and I we had several dinners with him on the other side of the counter: we were honored to talk to him and have him, literally, cook for us.

Today, Emeril is enormously successful. But he has paid his dues. Big time. We were two of the few who were fortunate to experience him at his best in person. This recipe for gazpacho is a throwback to then when he was in his prime and food meant everything. It is absolutely superb.

With all due respect to Jose...

I'm a sucker for Johnny Rooks' (Wabeck's) gazpacho. Maybe he can comment on his methods, but it's some of the best I've ever had. Rgardless of tradation, I like thick gazpacho than can ride in the spoon...and make it more easily into my greedy mouth without dripping onto my white shorts.

I lived in Madrid for quite a while and learned how to make Gazpacho from my 80 year old next door neighbor. I usually wing it, but my recipe is similar to Jose Andres' with a few exceptions.

To the 2 kg of tomatoes and one large cucumber I add about 1 bell pepper and maybe a 1/4 cup red wine vinegar. I also add 1/4th of an onion and 3 cloves of garlic. Also, the secret to a good, thick gazpacho is to take stale bread (like 4 inches of a 2-day old baguette), soak it in water for a few minutes, wring it out, and add it to the blender.

I like to have smooth gazpacho, so I blend all of this together exuberantly. Then I add good olive oil and salt.

I never do any of that fancy garnish stuff. I made this last night, and am looking forward to eating the leftovers today. Gazpacho is always better the 2nd day.

...Oh, and serve it with a plate on the side with traditional Spanish egg/potato tortilla and some mixed greens. Yum.

I just made my first batch of the summer. I threw tomatoes, half a purple bell pepper, lemon basil and parsley into the blender. I like mine thick but smooth. Afterwards I added some diced little, white cucumbers, white balsamic vinegar, olive oil and truffled salt. It was supposed to be for dinner tomorrow night but about a quarter of it gone already after sitting in the fridge for an hour.

Duck season, rabbit season, duck season...

No, it's GAZPACHO season. I made a big batch yesterday:

8 large tomatoes
2 large cucumbers
1/2 cup chopped fresh chives
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
1/2 cup chopped fresh tarragon
1 cup EVOO
1/2 cup (to taste) Banyuls vinegar
Water-- to desired consistency

I did a seedectomy on the tomatoes and cukes and pureed the hell out of them with the herbs, vinegar, and s&p. While the Cuisinart was running, I drizzled in some spanish EVOO.

Usually I like my gazpacho garlicky and/or spicy, but I really liked this herby concoction. My herb measurements above are rough estimates. I may have used more like a cup of the tarragon. Just keep adding until you're happy.

we tried this last night - simple and quick to make and was delicious - had the leftovers for lunch today - theres something incredibly satisfying about making something primarily with produce from your own garden

My (formerly) secret weapon is McIlhenny's chipotle pepper tabasco sauce. It gives a great smoky kick to the soup without overpowering the fresh veggie flavors.