CT Style Making Watermelon Gazpacho with Teresa Dufour and Scott McDonnell!

This Watermelon Gazpacho is perfect for these hot summer days! This past Thursday, on “CT Style”, Teresa Dufour, Scott McDonnell and I had some fun showing you how to make watermelon gazpacho! What a refreshing, healthy and delicious cold soup recipe this is. It’s made with tomatoes, watermelon, cucumbers, Vidalia onions, jalapeno, garlic, lime juice and fresh herbs like basil and dill. I like to top this watermelon gazpacho with some watermelon cubes, Valbreso Sheep’s Milk feta, fresh dill sprigs, basil and crushed garlic croutons for texture and flavor.

Nothing better then a refreshing cold soup on a hot sultry night then Watermelon Gazpacho. I really love planning ahead for this cold soup and getting all the chopping done at your convenience a day or two before makes all the difference in the world. You can even buy chopped veggies at the market and then give them a finer chop when you get home to save some time. This soup will last for a few days in the frig so leftovers are perfect for those surprise guests. For this reason I would suggest only topping each serving of cold watermelon gazpacho soup with feta, dill, and crushed croutons instead of all of the soup as one.

Other refreshing summer dishes you should try are Panzanella, Salsa 101, Mango salsa, Cold Cucumber Soup with Seared Scallops and some Berry Granita for dessert!

INGREDIENTS Watermelon Gazpacho (for approx 6 people)

• 3 1/2 cups seedless watermelon, 2 c. coarse cut, 1/2 c. fine dice to go back into finished purée, 1 c. small cubes for garnish
• 8 medium ripe stem tomatoes, 7 seeded and coarse cut, 1 seeded & fine dice to go back into finished purée
• 1  lg cucumber peeled and seeded & coarse cut
• 1/2 European cucumber, with skins on, all fine dice to go back into finished purée
• 1 1/2 red pepper, 1 pepper seeded & coarse cut, 1/2 fine dice to go back into finished purée
• 1/2 orange pepper, all fine dice to go into finished purée
• 1 lg jalapeño, without seeds, 1/2 coarse cut, 1/2 fine dice to go back into finished purée
• 1 1/2 med. Vidalia onions, 1 onion coarse cut, 1/2 fine dice to go back into finished purée
• 1 lg garlic clove put thru garlic press
• 2 basil leaves goes into blender
• 1 bunch fresh dill, 2 tbsp goes into blender, the rest for garnish
• 1/2 cup Greek Feta, good creamy feta crumbled for garnish (I use Valbreso Sheep’s Milk French Feta)
• Juice from 2 limes
• 1/4 cup, plus 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1/4 cup red wine vinegar, plus 1 tbsp
• 1 tbsp seasoned rice vinegar
• 1 tsp honey
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 /4 tsp black pepper
• 1 cup crushed Garlic Croutons for garnish

DIRECTIONS:

1. Prepare the coarse cut veggies for the blender:
2. Slice tomatoes in half, then into 6ths making it easier to remove all seeds with a spoon or your hands
3. Place seeded tomatoes into blender or food processor and purée with olive oil
4. Poor into a large bowl and set a side
5. Place 2 tbsp dill, 2 fresh basil leaves plus 2 c. cut up watermelon, cut up Vadalia onion, cucumber and red pepper into blender, and purée with red vinegar, and rice wine vinegar
6. Add this purée to the lg bowl with the tomato puree and mix together
7. Taste for seasoning, add salt, pepper and honey and all the “fine diced” tomatoes, English cucumber, orange, red peppers and jalapeño
8. If possible, let sit in refrigerator for 2 hours to allow spices and veggies to marry
9. Ladle watermelon gazpacho into bowls, top with drizzle of evoo, diced watermelon, crumbled feta, fresh dill sprigs and 1 tsp crushed garlic croutons