I made my first batch of gazpacho during the triple-digit heat wave we had in early June. There’s nothing like ice-cold gazpacho on a really hot day.
If you’re a fan of this fresh garden soup, you know that eating it is like eating a bowl of summertime. It’s chock full of fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, red and green bell peppers, jalapeno peppers, celery and onions (you can also add avocado, if you want) mixed with vegetable juice (I use my favorite Bloody Mary mix) and a combination of vinegars and fresh basil. As all my younger friends say — it’s the bomb!
There are lots of different recipes for gazpacho. Some people add bread to thicken it, but I prefer it without the bread. If you like salsa, you’ll love gazpacho. And you can make it as spicy as you like. The batch I made recently had a real kick.
Because I love this dish and just about any tomato dish so much, I planted a few tomato plants this year, and they’ve been prolific thus far.
I get my love of tomatoes from my mother whose idea of paradise was two pieces of soft white bread loaded with thick, juicy slices of tomato with salt and pepper and lots of mayo. In the summertime, we ate so many tomato sandwiches it’s a wonder we didn’t turn into tomatoes.
Fresh vegetables were a major part of my diet growing up. Mama and Nanny saw to that. Most of the meals they fixed featured at least three fresh vegetables in the summertime when they were plentiful. An old man would come around the neighborhood on Saturdays on a mule-drawn wagon selling veggies and fruits, and they’d stock up.
Of course, back then, Mama and Nanny always seasoned veggies with one part of the pig or another -- turnips and pigtails, simmlins (patty-pan squash) stewed with bacon grease and sweet onions, pole beans with fatback and new potatoes ... That was some mighty good eatin’! Now I only season my veggies with low-fat chicken stock and various herbs. Not quite as good but still pretty tasty as long as the veggies are fresh.
When I was six or seven, Daddy leased several acres of farmland next to the plant where he worked and put in a huge garden to help save money on groceries. The garden contained turnips, squash, corn, eggplants, radishes, potatoes, corn, onions, peas, beans, peppers, carrots, cantaloupes and watermelons. In the evenings, the whole family would drive out to the garden to hoe weeds and pick produce. When we’d get out of the car, a bunch of rabbits would pop up and start hopping this way and that through the garden, and my brother and I would run around in vain trying to catch one.
On the drive home, my brother and I, who would be dirty and nearly worn out from working so hard in the garden and running and playing, would munch on fresh carrots or radishes.
Growing a few tomato and pepper plants in pots on the deck isn’t quite the same as tending to a multi-acre garden, but it’s fun. Who knows. I might try a few more plants next year.
T&D Region Editor Carol Barker can be reached by e-mail at cbarker@timesanddemocrat.com or by phone at 803-533-5525.