Single Girl Soup: Stone Fruit Gazpacho
Get thee to the Farmer’s Market.
Cold soup doesn’t sound immediately appetizing, I get that. But when my friends Emily Fiffer and Heather Sperling, owners of Botanica in Los Angeles, shared their recipe for gazpacho, I became 100% willing to turn down a hot, cheesy, delicious pizza in favor of this chilled, vegan concoction. I know the word “bullshit” just popped into your mind, but stick a spoon in here before you judge me.
A simple recipe, as all recipes I don’t destroy are, this gazpacho is unique in that it really needs some fruit. I use peach, but you’re welcome to use nectarine or other stone fruit you like. I used a pear once, it was delicious.
You’re going to have to hurry if you want to make this recipe, it is best when tomatoes and peaches are in season and not those rock-like, pathetic excuses for produce (but excellent versions of baseballs) you find in large chain grocery stores in January.
Ingredients
1 tomato (I don’t know what size, just buy a tomato)
1/2 of a peach (you might want to remove the skin)
1/4 of an onion (stick the rest of it in a fajita or something)
1/3 of a cucumber (definitely remove the skin, stick slices of the rest of it over your eyes while listening to a relaxing Spotify selection later)
A lil bit of jalapeño, to taste (stick the rest in the aforementioned fajita, or try to pickle them, or make nachos, I don’t know)
2 cloves garlic
juice of at least one lime
a splash of sherry vinegar (red wine vinegar works too)
olive oil
salt & pepper
a good blender, I use a NutriBullet
basil oil (Photo below, this is a mixture of olive oil, fresh basil leaves, fresh garlic, salt, pepper, and sherry vinegar. You’ll want to make this first to give the flavors some time to join. I add this to a lot of soups and recipes actually, it’s really good to have around, and remember what I said about what to do with leftover fresh basil.)
Directions
Cut up all your veggies and stuff them into your blender. It’s okay to blend a little bit before all ingredients are in if they won’t all fit in there as their pre-blended selves. Once all the veggies are in, add splashes of olive oil and vinegar, the salt, pepper, and lime juice. Blend, blend my friends.
Put some soup in a blow and drizzle a little basil oil over it (this is a very important, delicious step). You can garnish with other fluffery if you want, but unless I’m taking a picture of it, I just use the basil oil.
This is one soup that, sadly, doesn’t freeze well, so this recipe doesn’t make a ton of soup, and you should try to finish it in a day or two. Grab a reusable canvas tote bag full of veggies and enjoy.
