Cool Down With This Unexpected Gazpacho

There are few things more refreshing on a hot summer day than an ice-cold bowl of gazpacho. Traditionally, gazpacho is made with fresh tomatoes, but we love the way the confited tomatoes in this recipe add a richness, sweetness and depth to the soup. Plus, it’s a great way to use up some of the BIG BATCH of tomato confit we suggested you whip up last week. Wondering how to confit a tomato? Check out our last post! We also round out the flavors and dial up the sweetness with the addition of a bit of super-sweet summer melon, which plays against the acidity of the tomatoes. Many gazpacho recipes would have you strain the soup before serving, but we skip that step to keep the goodness of all that fiber intact and also because it’s waaayyyy easier not too. Cool in the fridge for 4 hours or more for maximum “Ahhhhh” effect, or, if you’re short on time, serve it straight away, or place the individual bowls on ice, if you like.

Melon-Tomato Confit Gazpacho

Prep Time: ~10 mins

Makes 8–10 adult servings, or about a quart. Recipe can easily be halved.

• 2 cups confit tomato, drained of as much oil as possible

• 2 cups cubed cantaloupe or similar sweet melon

• 1 small summer squash or zucchini, roughly chopped

• 1 medium Persian cucumber, peeled and roughly chopped

• 1 medium pepper (any non-spicy variety) cored, deseeded and roughly chopped

• 2 cloves of garlic, peeled

• ½ of a small-medium mild, sweet yellow or white onion, roughly chopped (you can add more onion after tasting if you’d like it to be punchier)

• Juice of half a lemon

• 2 tablespoons of red wine or sherry vinegar

• 1-2 tablespoons of fresh mint leaves, plucked from the stems

• Sea salt to taste

How to Make Gazpacho

1. In a high-speed blender or food processor, combine the confited tomatoes, melon, squash, cucumber, pepper, garlic, and onion, and blend until homogenous.

2. Add the juice of half a lemon (careful to avoid seeds), the vinegar, and mint leaves and blend until thoroughly incorporated. Taste and adjust for salt. This is your chance to add more of any of the ingredients if you feel like the flavor balance needs any tweaking. Too thick? Add a little water, or even a couple ice cubes, and blend again.

3. To serve, ladle into bowls and drizzle with a little olive oil (perhaps, using the Great Jones Spout? See photo below). We love buying big bulk jugs of Seka Hills Olive Oil and decanting what need, a week at a time. The oil is delicious, farmed sustainably in California’s Capay Valley by members of the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation and is pretty economical for an excellent extra virgin olive oil when you buy larger quantities.

4. A nice garnish can be made by finely cubing cucumber and slicing a few cherry tomatoes in half and placing them in the center along with some torn mint or basil. Little croutons (store-bought or homemade!) add appealing crunch and textural variation too.

Hi! We’re Fanny and Greta, dear friends with deep backgrounds in sustainable food—who also happened to have had babies within a month of each other in 2022. With toddlers now in our arms, we’re in the thick of figuring out how to introduce our kids to yet more of the world of food while also feeding the rest of our families and, you know, working, and occasionally bathing ourselves. As everyone who has come before us well knows, this is a genuine challenge, so we launched the Green Spoon as a way to capture our learnings in real time and create a place for parental solidarity.