Have you ever had a meal that you think about years later? When I was pregnant with my first child I craved all of the fresh fruit and vegetables. I also wanted as much spice and salt as possible. I had a Watermelon Jalapeno Gazpacho at a local restaurant and have since been dreaming about. it nearly every hot day in the past 14 years. While I may not have recreated it exactly as it was before, I’m pretty happy with this recipe of Watermelon Jalapeno Gazpacho. It is a refreshing soup perfect for dining outdoors!
What is Gazpacho?
Who likes to turn on a heat source when it is 90+ degrees outside? Not me. A Gazpacho is a Spanish chilled soup. They are often made up of a variety of blended fresh vegetables, spices, herbs, and some vinegar and olive oil. They are chilled and served cold. Cold soup!? If you’ve never had this refreshing watermelon gazpacho dish, add it to your menu before the summer is over. This gazpacho recipe is a great appetizer or main!
Watermelon Jalapeno Gazpacho
This refreshing chilled soup takes a good blender or food processor to make. I tried it with a standard blender and it required a lot more chopping up of vegetables and it was a bit chunkier than I’d like. However, if that is all you have then I’d recommend chopping your vegetables up smaller and doing in batches.
Watermelon Jalapeno Gazpacho Ingredients: Please note that this recipe is incredibly flexible. Don’t know if your two large tomatoes are large enough or too large? Do not worry about it. Only have canned diced tomatoes? Sure, let’s try it! Make to taste and flex as needed.
- 4 cups of seedless watermelon (or 1 small seedless watermelon), cut into chunks
- 1 english cucumber (note: 3/4 english cucumber will be for mixture and 1/4 for garnish)
- 2-3 tomatoes (I used 3 heirloom tomatoes that were medium to large in size)
- 1 red bell pepper
- 1 large shallot (or small red onion will also work)
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 jalapeno pepper (seeded if your concerned about spice)
- 1/2 cup Good quality olive oil and more for drizzling
- Salt/Pepper
- 4 tablespoons Sherry Vinegar (red wine vinegar also works well)
- Cold Water (I keep about 1 cup of water near and use as needed)
Directions for a tasty Watermelon Jalapeno Gazpacho:
- Chop up all ingredients (aside from 1/4 cucumber which you should finely dice and set aside for garnish) so that your blender or food processor can easily take care of the mixture.
- Put tomato, watermelon, jalapeno, red pepper, shallot, olive oil, vinegar, salt, pepper, and garlic in blender and blend til smooth. Use water as needed to keep the mixture turning.
- Taste for flavor, add more salt/pepper if needed.
- Chill for 2 hours for flavors to meld.
- Garnish with good quality olive oil and diced cucumber.
You can serve this watermelon gazpacho with a nice crusty bread or eat as is! I also love the idea of adding in some bay shrimp to this chilled soup for a refreshing and filling meal.
What is your favorite dish to serve for a dinner outdoors?
Share in the comments below!
