Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Worth the Price of Admission

What does this look like to you? Spaghetti with sauce, maybe a bit of ground meat and veggies inside, maybe? Well, I hate to be a downer, but it was more of a helpless sort of "save my lunch" creation than any sort of culinary masterpiece. Yes, I am admitting culinary (or tastebud, as it were) failure tonight! It turns out, dear readers, that I hate gazpacho. With a passion. One so strong that it took the addition of (a lot) of pasta to save what would have been a most disappointing meal.

Why did I dislike it so much? I think it had a LOT to do with the addition of the celery. Now, I don't actually mind celery on it's own, topped with a spicy salsa, spread with peanut butter (when I could eat it) or even (gasp!) Cheez Whiz as a snack. But in this... it mutated into something evil. To me, the soup tasted only of celery, which in turn tasted scarily similar to cilantro... one of my few culinary pet hates. Sigh. Mind you, this makes a fantastic use of pantry staples and garden produce for later on in the Summer (when tomatoes come into season... I can't wait!), and if you like gazpacho I can heartily reccommend this as a light, refeshing and healthy lunch. However, if you're anything like me and the thought of a cold soup doesn't exactly float your boat, do what I did to save it - throw it in the microwave for a minute or two and toss it with some leftover pasta and black pepper for a delicious, fresh sauce that will mosey in to Ruth's Presto Pasta Nights this week!

Tasty Tabasco Gazpacho (or sauce)
Serves 4
1 cup V8 juice
2 teaspoon Tabasco sauce (garlic, if you can get it)
1/2 tsp Stevia (or 2 tbsp sugar, to taste)
1 tsp salt
2 tsp black pepper
1 fresh squeezed lemon
2 medium size carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
1 red onion, peeled and roughly chopped
2 medium size red peppers (I'd throw a jalapeno in, too)
2 to 3 ribs celery (next time I'll stick to 1, maybe), washed and rough chopped
2 large ripe tomatoes
1 medium size English cucumber, chopped
  1. Place all ingredients in a blender.
  2. Blend for 20 seconds to chop vegetables into small pieces (do not puree vegetables - it should be like a small-diced salsa).
  3. Add remaining juice and allow to sit in refrigerator for 4 hours for flavours to blend.
  4. Taste and add salt as needed.
  5. Serve well-chilled.

Amount Per Serving
Calories: 87.1
Total Fat: 0.7 g
Cholesterol: 0.0 mg
Sodium: 222.3 mg
Total Carbs: 20.3 g
Dietary Fiber: 5.2 g
Protein: 3.1 g

3 comments :

  1. I am glad you salvaged the dish. I'm with you about celery...not my fave.

    Thanks for sharing with Presto Pasta Night.

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  2. I've tried so many different varieties of gazpacho and I still can't decide what I think. Cold soup--it seems wrong.

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  3. I saw this on onceuponafeast and had to commend you an ingenious use of gazpacho. Also got me really excited for summer!

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Thanks for the feedback!