Good Use for Garden Tomatoes and Basil: Part 3

I like to make gazpacho from time to time to eat for lunch.

Here is a new gazpacho I recently found that I used my mom's garden tomatoes in. It was very yummy. I kind of improvised on the directions. It is a recipe by Alton Brown. His recipes are always so good, but they are almost always very labor intensive. With kids, I just didn't have the time to follow the directions exactly. my changes are in the notes below the recipe.

Gazpacho

Ingredients:

1 1/2 pounds vine ripened tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and chopped
1 cup cucumber, peeled, seeded, and chopped
1/2 cup chopped red bell pepper
1/2 cup chopped red onion
1 small jalapeno, seeded and minced
1 medium garlic clove, minced
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 lime, juiced
2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon toasted, ground cumin
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons fresh basil leaves, chiffonade

Directions:

Fill a 6-quart pot halfway full of water, set over high heat and bring to a boil.

Make an X with a paring knife on the bottom of the tomatoes. Drop the tomatoes into the boiling water for 15 seconds, remove and transfer to an ice bath and allow to cool until able to handle, approximately 1 minute. Remove and pat dry. Peel, core, and seed the tomatoes. When seeding the tomatoes, place the seeds and pulp into a fine mesh strainer set over a bowl in order to catch the juice. Press as much of the juice through as possible and then add enough bottled tomato juice to bring the total to 1 cup.

Place the tomatoes and juice into a large mixing bowl. Add the cucumber, bell pepper, red onion, jalapeno, garlic clove, olive oil, lime juice, balsamic vinegar, Worcestershire, cumin, salt and pepper and stir to combine. Transfer 1 1/2 cups of the mixture to a blender and puree for 15 to 20 seconds on high speed. Return the pureed mixture to the bowl and stir to combine. Cover and chill for 2 hours and up to overnight. Serve with chiffonade of basil.

Source: Food Network. Recipe by Alton Brown. You can find it here.

Notes: I didn't peel my tomatoes. I don't mind tomato peels in my gazpacho. Do you? It's just easier to skip that step! Less messy too. I simply chopped my fresh tomatoes and threw them in a bowl. The same hold true for my cucumbers. I didn't peel or seed those either. I also didn't toast my ground cumin. Finally, I forgot to blend a portion of the gazpacho in my blender.

The chopping required for gazpacho takes long enough, so I figured that was enough.

Long story short, my gazpacho turned out differently than Alton Brown's, but the moral of the story is that the flavors were all still there and the flavor combination of this soup is delicious.