Gazpacho…with Sriracha Sauce!

Gazpacho is one of my favorite summer foods to eat, so I have no idea why it’s taken me until August to whip up a batch. I know not everyone loves cold soups as much as I do – Funk included – so I took advantage of a night he was out on the town to create a cool summer soup. I had plenty of garden-fresh tomatoes on hand: my mom gave me a bunch from a local farm stand, and a chef  I work with gave me some beautiful tomatoes right from his backyard. Those, plus a cucumber, red bell pepper, celery, fresh basil from (another) basil plant (that I hope to keep alive a record 2 weeks), and I was ready to go.

But I had one more ingredient to use! Yesterday in the mail came a surprise package from my pal Annelies who, knowing my love for spicy foods, sent me a big bottle of Sriracha Sauce! I didn’t know what this sauce was til I saw a whole bunch of people tweet about it in a recent HealthBuzz chat. Annelies was so thoughtful to share the spicy sauce love with me, and perfect timing, as I love adding a hit of heat to my gazpacho.

Ingredients:

• As many fresh tomatoes as you can pluck from your garden (I had about 5)
• ½ red bell pepper
• 1 cucumber, diced
• 3 stalks celery, diced
• about 10 basil leaves, cut into ribbons
• 1 Tbsp lemon juice
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• a few dashes of dried oregano
• sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
• a squirt of Sriracha Sauce (careful, it’s hot!)

Gorgeous!

I cut up all of the veggies and put them in a pot with the basil leaves then had at it with my hand-held immersion blender. It blended my gazpacho in a matter of seconds, and I left a few veggies chunky since I like soup with some bite to it. I added the lemon juice, olive oil (helps absorb the nutrients from the veggies!), oregano, and generously added the salt and pepper. After pouring myself a bowl, I topped it off with a tiny squirt of Sriracha Sauce that gave it a perfect kick.

Oh. So. Good. My only regret is not making this sooner.