Watermelon Gazpacho

Ah, summer. That magical time of year when I longinly look outside thinking that going outside would be a great idea, then I go outside only to assualted with 95 degree heat and/or 90% humidity. Ah, summer. Also, the magical time in which treats like watermelons become affordable and my garden produces edible produce. Both fantastic events occurred last week. The farmer's market at work had big watermelons for $3 each and my tomato plants gave up some red tomatoes (probably because I've been singing them to begging for red tomatoes already and they were tired of hearing it). What can you make with watermelon and tomatoes? Watermelon gazpacho of course.

For this delightful cold soup, you'll need: one large watermelon, one yellow bell pepper, one red bell pepper, a few tomatoes, some spicey peppers, a cucumber, a red onion and whatever else you choose to season with. Not pictured are my seasonings, including: red wine vinegar, cayanne pepper and goat cheese.

First, go see what you can find in your garden.  The two tomatoes, banana pepper and jalapeno came from my garden. I picked everything that was ripe, so we'll give these tomatoes some time to mature. Hopefully the infiltrating cucumber plant will produce something soon that's not just a flower, because I'm getting tired of waiting for cucumbers.

Now to chopping. One suepr-great-fantastic thing about this soup is that you don't cook anything. Perfect for those super hot days when turning on the stove is a terrible idea. I started with the cucumber, peeling, seeding and dicing about 1/2 of a long cucumber.

Next, I diced half of the red onion and threw it into the bowl with the cucumber.

Now, the tomatoes. I diced two medium garden tomatoes and threw them into the bowl too.

Then, the peppers. I started with the banana pepper and jalapeno, coarsely chopping them and their seeds, and also throwing both into the bowl.

Now, the bell peppers. I diced both and (of course) threw them into the bowl.

Finally, the watermelon. I'm strongly considering referring to whole watermelons as mess melons from now on. I will show proof of this mess later.  First, you need to crack this baby open. If you're lucky like me, you have a husband who is happy to grab the biggest knife in your shared knife collection and do this for you. You want to cut the melon in half, then cut each half into large slices.

You'll need about five cups of diced watermelon.  Keep the diced pieces to roughly the size that would fit on a spoon, since some will be going into the soup whole.

While dicing the melon, I considered giving an entire rind to the begging puppy. But thought better of it. The rind, however, makes a fantastic photo prop for those times when you just really don't want to smile.

Since the puppy was already begging, Brian threw him some melon (of course I didn't chop all 5 cups myself, that would be crazy talk, I was too busy making rind smiles). The puppy normally hates all sorts of wet or cold foods and most fruits. Unless Brian gives it to him, then he loves everything. He will eat anything Brian gives him. It's really a little bit insulting since he usually just licks the things I give him and leaves them on the floor for me to pick up.

After all this watermelon fun, divide the choped melon, with one cup going into your veggie bowl and the rest in another bowl for pureeing.  If you cook like I cook, you should have the beginning of a raging mess on hand as well.

Puree the watermelon using any device you'd like.  I tried using the blender because it's way easier to clean than the food processor, but found I cut the chunks too big and they weren't getting into the little blender propeller blade. So I had to bust out the food processor. I honestly wish I could remember who gave this to me and Brian as a wedding present, and I sincerely apologize if the gifter is a reader. I'm going to say it, I ♥ this food processor. At first I thought I would never use it. Now I find myself using it to do things like grate cheese, because using the actual cheese grater would just be too hard. Using it to puree the watermelon proved to be a double edged sword.  Mistake #1 - filling the prep bowl too much so that when the melon turned to liquid, it was above the 'max liquid fill line' and some leaked out. Mistake #2 - forgetting that once you remove the processor blade from the bowl and take the bowl off the stand, liquids leak out. Result of these mistakes - even more mess and some wonderfully pureed watermelon.

Transfer the pureed watermelon to the veggie bowl, mix well, cover and refrigerate.  I did not mix mine very well because when I served Brian and KMS a little shot glass worth of gazpacho as a precursor to Sunday taco/burrito dinner, KMS said hers was delicious and Brian says his was hot like fire and opted to not finish it. Oops! I guess he got all the jalapenos!

Let this refigerate for a few hours, giving everything a chance to cool and flavors to marry. This is also a great time to clean up the gigantic mess you probably made. Let me show you mine. First there were small appliances galore to wash, and I hate washing dishes.

Then there were the countertops. I (stupidly) thought cleaning them with a white towel would be a wonderful idea. Luckily, my mother sends me kitchen towels like it's going out of style, so I have plenty to spare when this one doesn't come clean. It goes without saying that I'm a hot mess.

Back to the soup, I let mine chill for a few days because I went to South Carolina for Father's day. When I got back and before serving the infamous gazpacho shot glass of death, I added a splash of red wine vinegar and a bunch of cayanne pepper, probably a tablespoon.  Immediately before serving, top with a bit of goat cheese and enjoy!  I have no pictures of said final product because I've been battling a headache for a few days and kept forgetting to get the camera from upstairs before eating my soup. I'm sure all 10 readers out there can imagine what a single serving of feta topped gazpacho looks like. 

Carrot-Curry-Coconut-Cold Soup

Atlanta is currently suffering from nearly record breaking heat. It was, no lie, 87 degrees out when I got to work at 9 AM this morning. I think the day clocked in around 95 degrees, which was not a record high temp for this day, currently held by June 15, 1952 with a temp of 96 degrees.  My usual summer plan of walking Harley-face and running a few miles in the morning to beat the heat, is just not working these days. Alas, I think it is time to quit the hot soups for a few months. This is my first foray into cold soups, so hopefully it goes well, or else it will just be gazpacho and cucumber-mint soup each week until summer ends. Cold soup #1 = Carrot-Curry-Coconut-Cold Soup.

The ingredient list for this baby is pretty small. Just an inch or so of fresh ginger, one sweet onion, a bunch of scallions, 7-10 whole carrots, curry powder, broth of your choosing, coconut milk and a lime.

Start with the ginger.  First cut off its ugly brown skin. Then, get our your trusty box grater or microplane. One of the many themes in my house is, 'Go big or go home' so naturally we have a giant box grater.

Grate the ginger until you have about a tablespoon of it. I found that grating it on an angle worked best, otherwise I ended up with ginger pulp.

Next, chop the onion putting it in the bowl with the ginger.  I had a pretty large vidalia onion today, so I only used half of it, and threw the other half in the delicious tomato-cucumber-onion salad KMS left in my fridge when she was over for World Cup last week. I continued to pick at the salad for the duration of my cook time because it is so delicious.

Next, the scallions.  I don't really appreciate scallions or know what to do with them. Specifically, I don't know which parts are edible and which parts I should throw away. I literally have to ask Brian where to stop cutting them every time we have them, but he was in Kansas (looking for Dorothy) when I made this, so I just had to go on instinct.  I sliced about 1/2 of each scallion, tossing the dark green tops. Throw these in the ginger-onion bowl.

Now, the carrots.  I peeled 7 carrots for my soup. Then I had what I thought was a fantastic idea to use this super cool peeler like thing that actually juliennes carrots. After using this cool tool on about 1/4 of one carrot and throwing carrot slices all over my kitchen, I realized this was a bad idea.

If only MD or CJ were around with the bad idea bears when I realized this. They weren't but Harley-face was. At first he was pretty unsure of the carrot.

Then he realized it was food and wanted it. If you look really closely, you can see his missing teeth, compliments of his aggression towards the doorbell and the fact that the doorknob is always in the way of him getting outside.

After a five minute giggle fest at Harley's new found love affair with carrots, its back to actually slicing the carrots.  I experimented with the most efficient way to cut these up, settling on thin rounds.

Now to cook, heat a large soup pot over medium heat and throw in a bit of olive oil.  Once its hot, throw in the ginger-onion-scallion mix.

Immediately add a hefty portion of curry powder, at least a tablespoon. I also threw in about two teaspoons of garam masala. Add salt and pepper to taste as well.  Stir this all up and cook until the onions are softened, about 5-8 minutes.

Next, add the carrots and broth.  I only added two cups of broth because I didn't want to make more than three servings of soup. If you're making more soup, just add more broth (obvi). Reduce heat to medium, cover and simmer for at least 20 minutes or until the carrots are very soft.

Remove from the heat and give it a taste. I thought mine needed more spice, so I threw in more curry powder. Add one can of coconut milk and stir. 

Lastly, get out your trusty stick blender and blend until smooth.  This would likely be delicious not blended, but I was in the mood for soup that actually looked like a beverage. A oddly colored orange beverge. Before seving, garnish with a little fresh lime juice.  I'm intending to eat this cold, but I sampled it while it was hot and it tasted pretty yummy. I think it could go both ways. Enjoy!