Watermelon Gazpacho

The watermelon gazpacho from the Blender Girl cookbook (technically titled, "Watermelon Gazpacho is the Bomb!") is radically different from the tomato-watermelon gazpacho I wrote about yesterday from Magic Soup. Unlike something like a tomato soup, where the taste varies by recipe but there's a common structure and appearance to most tomato soups, the ingredients and looks of a gazpacho tend to vary significantly. The origin story of gazpacho is not entirely clear, but it seems to have started as a water, bread, garlic, olive oil, and vinegar-based soup in Andalusia. Over time, gazpacho has become associated with a tomato base, either partially or completely pureed with a mix of cucumbers, red peppers, onions, olive oil, vinegar, stale bread, salt, and pepper. I've always thought of it as a salad soup.  This watermelon gazpacho is relatively similar to a standard gazpacho, except it uses herbs and citrus instead of the vinegar and doesn't contain bread or oil.

The Blender Girl's watermelon gazpacho is essentially a refreshing salad with a watermelon juice base. Writing that, I'm not convinced the description is particularly appealing, so you'll just have to believe me when I tell you this gazpacho is a delicious, delicate, and refreshing soup. Similarly to the tomato-watermelon gazpacho, the flavor of this watermelon gazpacho is significantly improved by the 3+ hour rest. It gives the fruits, veggies, herbs, and citrus time to mingle and the flavors to blend into a cohesive, refreshing soup.

Due to the amount of vegetables that need to be finely diced and otherwise prepared for this gazpacho, it does take quite a bit of prep time to make - at least double the amount of time the tomato-watermelon gazpacho takes. Your exact time will vary with your knife skills, but it took me at least 30 minutes to get all the components ready for adding to the watermelon puree base. Add that to the amount of time required to let the gazpacho rest in the refrigerator, and I suggest making this gazpacho the day before you plan to eat it. It stores pretty well, I kept mine in the refrigerator for 3-4 days.

Original source: Blender Girl

Watermelon Gazpacho

A very light and refreshing summer-y gazpacho. The watermelon and mint add sweetness, while the ginger and chile add spice.

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Course: Soup

Cuisine: American

Keyword: Blender girl, summer soup

Prep Time: 45 minutes minutes

Chilling time: 3 hours hours

Total Time: 3 hours hours 45 minutes minutes

Servings: 4 -6

Ingredients

• 4 cups (460 g) seedless watermelon (¼ of one) roughly chopped
• 6 cups (690 g) seedless watermelon (⅓ of one) diced into 0.5 inch cubes
• 2 cups (300 g) tomato (about 9 small/medium) diced
• 1 cup (145 g) English cucumber (⅓-1/2 of one) peeled, seeded, and diced
• ½ cup (70 g) red bell pepper (⅓-1/2 of one) diced
• 3 tablespoons basil julienned and chopped
• 3 tablespoons mint julienned and chopped
• 3 tablespoons fresh lime juice 3 limes, more to taste
• 1 teaspoon lime zest
• 2 teaspoons fresh ginger grated
• ½ teaspoon green serrano chile (⅓-1/2 of one) minced, more to taste
• ½ tablespoon natural salt more to taste
• Optional: 2 tablespoons red onion minced*
• pinch of freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

• Prep all of the vegetables. Expect this to take a while.
  
• Place the 4 cups of roughly chopped watermelon into a blender. Puree 30-60 seconds until liquefied. Pour into large bowl.
• Add all the remaining ingredients. Stir well to combine.
• Taste and adjust flavors to taste.
• Cover and chill in the refrigerator for 3 hours, optimally at least 12 hours, to allow flavors to meld and fully develop.
• Adjust flavors if necessary, with more lime juice, chile, salt, or onion. If it's grown too spicy, add more lime juice. Serve.

Notes

98 calories, 1g fat, 24g carbohydrate, 18g sugar, 2g fiber, 2g protein

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