This week’s picnic food was gazpacho !! What a perfect chilly dish to bring to a picnic. The flavor was amazing too – we added chickpeas for some chew. This recipe is definitely a keeper.
We had a small crowd tonight! Blog reader Ashley and her husband Lucasz (hope I spelled that right!!) met us for the LAST symphony of the summer (except we just realized we can go for the 4th of July celebration this Thursday so there’s one more!). Karen also joined us and brought some amazing mango-ginger stilton cheese, hummus and Kashi party crackers to round out the picnic.
The husband:
This gazpacho was a diversion from our normal recipe, but was still quite tasty. Here’s what went in it:
- 2 large heirloom tomatoes, juice, jelly, seeds, n’ all
- 1/2 container of grape tomatoes
- 2 medium cucumbers, seeds removed
- 1/4 of a green bell pepper
- 1/4 of a red bell pepper
- 1.5 cup low sodium V8
- juice from 1/2 a lime
- 1/2t cumin
- 1/2t black pepper
- 1/4t cayenne
- Salt to taste
- 1t Worcestershire
- 1t EVOO
- 1 cup frozen corn
- 1 can chickpeas
Add everything except corn and chickpeas to blender/food processor/emulsion blender and pulverize! Give your machinery a head start, of course, by chopping the veggies into rough cubes. Once you have your spices and salt to the desired levels, stir the corn and peas in. Let cool in refrigerator for a few hours.
There are three ingredients that we didn’t have on hand but I always try to put in gazpacho: roasted red peppers, chipotle chilis in adobo sauce, and cilantro. These three have so much incredible flavor, they really make the dish, so go for it if you got ‘em!
Kath
I wasn’t planning on drinking tonight, but our friends brought a local North Carolina wine from the Yadkin Valley : Raffaldini – so I had to give it a try!
Ashley and me sipping away!
Dinner – perfect picnic food!
Seconds -
Dessert: Ashley and Lucasz also brought the sweetest watermelon !
Leeeettle bit more!
Nibbles…. Also not photographed was one more half cracker and one more break-off piece of flatbread.
Around 5:00 I had a glass of milk with half a CIB packet and some crackers to hold me until dinner. It didn’t really do much at first, then then hunger went away about 30 minutes later. Strange!
Big test in the AM. And Week 4 of 5 begins!
{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
LOVE gazpacho! That looks delicious- I never would have thought to add chickpeas.
Sounds like y’all had a fun night!
All the food looks so delicious! Good luck tomorrow!!
Good luck on the test
Gazpacho is my absolute favorite summer food. Your recipe looks yummy!
What fun – and that dress is so adorable on you
yummm…I wish I had all those Gazpacho ingredients. Also, I added you to my blogroll!
It is really really really hard for me to eat something at 5pm and not have the hunger go away right away. I think that why it’s easier for me to eat earlier, because then I can just be finished. However, if a later dinner is planned, I always run into trouble with the 5pm hunger. I’ll just keep eating until I’m full, and then not be hungry for dinner.
Mmm, I’ve been craving gazpacho…I’ll have to give your recipe a try. And mango stilton sounds so yummy! Looks like a fun picnic.
Do you mind if I ask where your dress is from? It’s so cute!
Good luck on the big test.
Week 4 of 5 ??? Time flies… OMG… Food was great at the symphony. How was the symphony? I miss my piano.
anna ,
Dress is from Loehmann’s, a discount designer type store (like TJ Max) and I’m not sure what brand it is.
Sidi,
Time IS flying!!!
K
Hi Kath,
Wow – you don’t have much longer to go with classes! Tiime is flying! I can’t even believe it’s Fourth of July weekend this week! I don’t want the summer to fly by TOO fast.
Thanks for the answer regarding Ekiziel bread. I was wondering why all the packages of Ekieziel bread were wet at Trader Joe’s.
Do I store it in the fridge then until all of it is used up? Not on the counter top?
Thanks! Happy Short Week!
Suzanne ,
I always store bread in the fridge because I think it lasts longer in there. But since they grocery stores put it on the shelves, I don’t think it’s mandatory at all.
K
Mmmm, gazpacho, my favorite soup. I use low-sodium V8 in mine as well! You might also want to give ajo blanco a try.
Suzanne,
I used to work at Trader Joe’s, and even the managers conceded that the Ezekiel bread should have been frozen – we threw out a lot of moldy loaves (but alas, no space in the store.) When you get the bread home, I’d store in the freezer for longer life — since it’s all-natural, it goes bad sort of quickly at room temp.
Kim -
Thanks for the info!
Actually, I didn’t buy bread from Trader Joe’s for a while, because 9 times out of 10 the bread was moldy!
But recently, I started buying the TJ high fiber bread and have been keeping it in the fridge.
I have the Ezekiel cinnamon raisin bread in the fridge right now (I bought it on Saturday) – and I’ll transfer it to the freezer when I get home today.
Thanks!
are you going back to the soup kitchen
If you ever have the chance to go to Raffaldini you should def. go!! It’s so beautiful and feels a lot like California wine country.