Not sure why this idea never occurred to me before but gazpacho is the perfect summer food. It's also perfect if you have a garden, with less than perfect vegetables. So, today I turned some mealy tomatoes and off shaped cucumbers into a delicious summer treat.

I hauled out the Cuisinart only to find that it doesn't work. Every time I hit "pulse" it just clicked. Mini-Cuis to the rescue. It's hard to believe but I whipped up this up in about 10 or so batches. I've always been a Mini-Cuis fan and now I know why.

I blanched the tomatoes, even though I had some frozen I wanted to go fresh plus I had an abundance, pureed about 4 cups and then chopped about 2 cups. This recipe is easy. I used yellow peppers (green are too bitter for me) and more cucumber than called for since I had so many. I also added Tabasco to taste. And, rough chop is fine since I stuck it all in the blender anyway. This came out particularly good.

I froze a Ziploc bag full since there is no way we can eat that much gazpacho. I've developed this new method of freezing liquids: I fill a Ziploc bag, lay it on a flat plate (square is best), then flatten to remove all the air without squeezing out the liquid. Stick the plate in the freezer and when frozen I store it upright like a book. It takes up hardly any room and if I only need a small portion of the liquid, I can just break it off and defrost it. Brilliant!

Here's the recipe and evidence of how I turned my veggies into deliciousness:

Gazpacho

4 c pureed tomatoes

2 c chopped tomatoes

1 peeled, seeded and diced cucumber

1/2 chopped celery

1/2 c chopped red onion

1/2 c chopped bell pepper

2 chopped scallions

2 cloves minced garlic

1/4 c chopped parsley

2 T wine vinegar

2 T lemon juice

2 T olive oil

salt, pepper

Puree all or some of ingredients until desired consistency.

Chill for several hours prior to serving.

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