Do you have a recipe for Gazpacho?

[didan]

I'm craving gazpacho big time today. If you have a favorite recipe for it, would you be so kind to share it?

[raweater]

I have an awesome one in a book called Rawsome, let me run and get it and I'll post it in a few minutes...

5 medium tomatoes, chopped
1 red pepper, chopped
1 cucumber, chopped
1/4 onion, chopped
1 avocado, pitted, peeled & chopped
1 cup water, chopped... oh no wait, not this one
3/4 t salt
1/2 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
1/2 cup fresh basil, chopped
1/2 cup lemon or lime juice

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and toss. Pour half into a food processor and pulse. Return to the rest of the soup and mix well.

I actually craved this a few months ago during the winter, strangely, but it's really good.

[didan]

...wow, lime and avocado, too! Thank you so much!

[raweater]

I made this yesterday, anyone else tried it?

[MysticTree]

I would eat lots of soup of the traditional cooked variety when I was eating non-raw but never did I like cold soups ... I need to try to overcome this. I am sure that I would like them if I made an effort!

[raweater]

You could always try to add hot spices like cayenne and/or warm it for maybe 30-60 minutes in the dehydrator.

[MysticTree]

I don't have a dehydrator and i don't think I will get one anytime soon. I had an excalibur and it just took so long to dehydrate things.

[raweater]

Excalibur is the best/fastest one. Dehydrating does take long but I never saw it as a problem I just prepare dehydrated things in advance. Plus most dehydrated things have a long shelf life.

You can always heat it in an oven set very low (it's far less likely to cook this way than heating it in a pot on the stove)

[MysticTree]

Excalibur is the best/fastest one. Dehydrating does take long but I never saw it as a problem I just prepare dehydrated things in advance. Plus most dehydrated things have a long shelf life.

You can always heat it in an oven set very low (it's far less likely to cook this way than heating it in a pot on the stove)

I really don't see dehydrating as part of my raw life-style. It's not just about making things in advance it's also about electricty usage and also if I eat lots of dehydrated foods then I must drink more water to compensate. I like to eat foods with high water content so that I can minimise the amount of water I must drink on its own.

I may just not be a raw soup eater ... I'm not fussed on green smoothies either.

[raweater]

I understand and haven't used my D in nearly a year since I was too busy and then went through 6 months of renovations where anything with a running fan got caked in renovation dust every 6 hours for nearly 6 months, so anything I would have dehydrated would have been covered in plaster and tile dust.

The renovations are now complete enough that it's not permanently raining dust anymore so I'll probably use it this summer.

BTW they don't use much power, and leaving a dehydrator running for 24 hours probably takes less power than running a regular oven for 1 hour, I could test it I have a power meter to calculate how much appliances consume.

[MysticTree]

I've read that it is the same as a lightbulb but what sort of lightbulb I am not sure!

[raweater]

I would assume like a 60-100 watt bulb.

[MysticTree]

I would assume like a 60-100 watt bulb.

That's quite a lot of energy. Maybe electricity is cheaper over there?
In the paper today there is a headline about electricity prices rising by £200 per year!!! It's going to mean a lot of sitting in the dark with as few appliances on as possible.

[raweater]

100 watts is quite insignificant if you consider a hot water heater is about 5000 watts, a furnace from 8000-15000 watts, and kettles, coffee makers, toasters are all normally 1500-1800 watts.

So boiling your kettle for 5 minutes takes the same as running a dehydrator for 75 minutes. Your furnace running for 5 minutes takes as much as your dehydrator running for 12.5 hours.

Actually our high speed blenders are also 1500 watts (a bit less for the VM) so blending for 5 minutes is like 75 minutes of dehydrating, but you don't run your blender for 5 minutes so that's not a good example.

[MysticTree]

I have as few machines as possible. Haven't had a toaster for years or a microwave and that was when eating cooked food. I don't have a tumble drier or a phone that uses electricity I use low wattage energy saving bulbs in my lights and we share baths. We have gas for heating water and radiators and the oven/stove - my bf uses that.

I ditched the freezer a while back and the fridge is looking like it will get the same treatment fairly soon as it uses quite a bit.

My computer is probably my most extravagant electricity guzzler.

oh and even my sewing machine is a treadle singer from the early 20th century :)

[GreginND]

Raweater, your recipe sounds delicious. I will definitely keep it and try it out when my tomatoes start to ripen in the garden. (I don't much care for store tomatoes that taste like cardboard.)

If anyone has had the real thing in Spain you know that it uses bread in the gazpacho to give it a creamy texture. I'm wondering if anyone has a good raw alternative to using bread to thicken the soup and give it that wonderful creaminess.

Georgina, I am very impressed with your low energy lifestyle! I know that most Americans never consider the amount of energy they are wasting. We could definitely learn a lessor or two from you. You are a great example to follow!

[raweater]

GreginND: It's not my recipe, I copied it from a book called RAWSOME. The Avocadoes make it very creamy (half the mix gets processed and mixed back with the chunky ingredients), have you tried it yet?

MysticTree: Good job on saving power, about the computer, this may be a bit extreme, but I recently bought a grayscale handheld PC from 97 to be able to work from outside this summer since old grayscale LCD screens can be viewed in sunlight (color screens turn all black in sunlight). It's been great to work on my website from parks outside.

Best part is, it runs for 2 weeks of daily use out of 2 AA batteries, and I use rechargeable ones of course so I never replace them. If you're willing to sacrifice a color screen and more recent software you can use one of these that requires a maximum of 2.3 watts of power (that's when you're pushing it at it's limits like playing music while having the screen back light on and using a wireless internet connection). There are also color ones that are bout 20 watts and last 8-12 hours on a charge.

If ever you're interested let me know and I can tell you which models can do what you need, these are all discontinued devices and hard to find on eBay but are the most power efficient Windows computers ever built. I was very lucky to be able to find the one I have.

This is the one I got, it's the only model ever made that both has a full size keyboard and a grayscale screen, I got it for $41 on ebay (was $800 in 1997):

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_0sdrdAqyiJ8/R8O1NJd6nfI/AAAAAAAABow/fa_KGD-Ty2s/s400/mobilepro750.gif

Sorry to get off topic.

[DaLoca]

I make mine based on what is on sale. Try it out.

4 Vine Tomatoes.
1 Green Pepper
6 Green Onions, bottoms cut.
2 cups ice.
1 cup water, chopped... oh no wait, not this one
Few spinkles of Kosher Salt
1 bushel of Parsley
1 cup fresh basil, chopped
4 Limes, 2 peeled and 2 halved.

Put the tomatoes, water, and ice in the blender, and blend on the mode set to liquify. At six cups, dump half of the puree in a bowl. Should be relatively pulpy thick. Now take the rest of the ingredients and put them back into the food processor (except the salt and the unpeeled limes). Don't add any more water. Make sure you quarter the pieces for smooth blending. Let blend until the consistency is to your liking, I like mine very soup like, so I blend for about 3 minutes. Throw everything on top of the tomato blend and stir in. I happened to do this with the celery stick I was going to eat with it.
Take the remaining limes and squeeze on top, salt to taste, I sprinkled a few pinches of salt into mine.

Yields about 15 bowls. At least it did at my house.