By Wheeler Cowperthwaite
For El Rito Media

P.S. Don’t forget the green chiles

As summer threatens to wind down, my tomato plants are threatening to fall over, with red, green, yellow, orange, a whole kaleidoscope of fat fruit, just on the brink of breaking the limb from which it hangs.

While the cherry tomatoes are easy, pop them in the mouth and they never get big enough to topple a plant, everything else just gets bigger and bigger and bigger, which means, what are you going to do with all those tomatoes, all those tomatoes on our vines?

Turn them into a cold soup, perfect for a hot summer night, of course!

I grew up eating gazpacho, the cold Spanish tomato soup, and indeed, when I went looking for recipes, one of my mom’s was first to pop up, with Tabasco, tomato juice, parsley and dill, scallions and honey.

While nostalgia may help make the decision of what to make, it doesn’t always dictate how to make it. In my mom’s recipe, a 48-ounce can of cold tomato juice was paired with chopped veggies, the hot sauce, olive oil, and dill (because you can’t forget the dill) and chilled for two hours before serving.

I’ve decided instead to go the blender route, where most of the ingredients are shorn together, chilled together, and then served together with some freshly cut versions of themselves. In this method, there is no need for the can of tomato juice because the tomatoes are already more than juicy enough.

The star of the show here is, of course, the tomatoes. Some recipes call for Roma, others for heirloom. I call for whatever you have available.

The other key summer ingredient is cucumbers, which have taken over the garden. While the tomatoes threaten to tear down the scaffolding used to hold them up, the cucumbers threaten to tear down the fence they’ve climbed up.

Bell peppers are the normal go-to peppers in gazpacho but green chiles are the go-to in my life.

Ingredients

1 cucumber

2 ½ pound tomatoes

2 green chiles

¼ red onion

2 garlic cloves

¼ cup chopped cilantro (more for garnish)

3 tablespoons sherry vinegar or red wine vinegar

½ cup extra virgin olive oil

¼ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon ground black pepper

¼ cup chopped dill (optional)

1 tablespoon Tabasco or other hot sauce (optional)

Directions

Chop ¼ of the cucumber for garnish.

Cut the remainder of the cucumber into chunks, then place in blender.

Cut the tomatoes, pepper, onion into quarters. Lightly chop the cilantro if not already chopped. Add the dill if using.

Add to the blender the garlic, vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper.

Blend until smooth.

Chill for two hours.

Season to taste.

Serve with the remaining diced cucumbers and cherry tomatoes, or other chopped tomatoes.

Recipe adapted from Love and Lemons