Gazpacho

Two weeks ago I was at the farmer's market with my sister and I discovered a vendor who was selling not-quite-ripe tomatoes for $0.50 a pound. So, I bought about 7 tomatoes which have been sitting on my kitchen windowsill ripening, and then another week in the fridge before I figured out what to do with them. I picked up a cucumber, some garlic, and cilantro and decided to make gazpacho.

And then I found at that all the recipes I could find for gazpacho required tomato juice. Lame. So I made my own.

Ingredients:

3-4 slightly overripe tomatoes, quartered
3 cloves garlic, peeled (I only used 3, but in hindsight I should have used 4-5, people not obsessed with garlic will probably be fine with 3)
1 large cucumber, peeled and chopped into 1-inch chunks
1 small hot pepper of your choice
1/2 onion (I used half white and half red, because they were left over from other things)
handful cilantro
4-7 splashes Tabasco

Put half of the vegetables (not the cilantro, because it is an herb) in the blender and puree until smooth. Then, add the second half of the veggies in an "pulse". This will give you a chunkier gazpacho. If you want a smoother one, puree all the veggies. Add tabasco, salt and pepper to taste - this recipe might also benefit from a splash of red wine vinegar if you so choose. I didn't, because I didn't have any. Roughly chop the cilantro and stir into the soup. Serve cold, garnished with a slice of cucumber and pepper. Alas, I forgot to take a picture before I ate it, so this isn't a particularly attractive photo.