Vegetarian Recipe: Green Zebra Gazpacho

Every week on the Good Food Blog we celebrate Meatless Monday by sharing a vegetarian recipe from our archives.

Amelia Saltsman is author The Santa Monica Farmers’ Market Cookbook. She first shared this recipe for Green Zebra Gazpacho on August 23, 2003.

Green Zebra Gazpacho

Makes 8 servings or 2 quarts

• 2 lbs Green Zebra or Evergreen tomatoes

• 1 small white onion, coarsely chopped

• 1 cup seedless green grapes

• 2 Persian cucumbers, about 10 ounces, peeled, seeded and cut in chunks

• 1 pint stale French bread, crusts removed and torn

• 2 limes, juiced

• 1/2-1 small jalapeno pepper, cut in small pieces

• 8-10 sprigs cilantro, stems removed

• 8-10 sprigs mint, stems removed

• 1 Tablespoons oil

• 1 teaspoon kosher salt, or to taste

• 1 1/2 cups water

• 1 ripe avocado

Peel and seed tomatoes by dropping whole tomatoes into a pot of boiling water for 30 seconds. Remove with strainer. Skins will slip off easily. After removing the core, cut tomatoes in half across their equators. Squeeze to remove the seeds. Discard seeds. Coarsely chop tomatoes and place in large bowl. Add remaining ingredients –start with half of the chile — and stir. Using a blender, puree the soup in batches. Be sure to leave it a little chunky for texture. Chill for at least 2 hours. Taste and correct seasonings. If the soup is not spicy enough, grind remaining half chile with a little water and stir into soup. Garnish with diced avocado and an extra sprinkling of salt if desired.