One of my recent obsessions has been gazpacho. If you don’t know what it is, it’s basically a Spanish tomato-based cold vegetable soup especially delicious during the hot summer months (i.e. now). I had never had it until about a month ago when a co-worker told me I could get some at a place called Le Pain Quotidien up in LA where we work. We made a trip there one day for lunch and I asked for extra avocado in mine (I’m a strong believer that avocado should be put in EVERYTHING). It was hands down one of the best things I’ve ever eaten and I try to eat it once a week if I can. I decided I would attempt to make this myself at home. I had a craving for tacos and coupled with my love for avocados, I decided to try an Avocado based gazpacho as opposed to tomato based. The results were nothing short of spectacular…

Avocado Gazpacho

Gazpacho is also one of the easiest and most flavorful things to make and doesn’t take long at all if you know what you want to put in it. It’s also completely vegan yet hearty enough to satisfy any appetite.

- 1/2 cup red bell pepper chopped
- 1/2 cup white onion chopped
- 1/2 cup zucchini chopped
- 1/2 cup yellow squash chopped
- 2 ripe avocados
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1/2 cup corn kernels
- 1/2 cup red tomatoes diced
- 1 1/2 tbsp cilantro chopped
- 1 tbsp Anaheim chile diced (you can use serrano or even jalapeno depending on how spicy you want it to be)
- 1/4 cup lime juice
- 2 1/2 cups ice cold water
- 1 tsp dried cumin (optional)
- salt and pepper to taste
- sour cream (optional)
- Cotija cheese (optional)

Take the first 4 ingredients, throw them in the food processor and pulse for a few seconds to get finer bits of veggies.  Dump them into a bowl.  Add corn, tomatoes, cilantro, garlic, cumin and chile.  Take one avocado, remove pit, scoop out the flesh and dice.  Add diced avocado to the bowl.  Add lime juice and generous amounts of salt and some pepper to bowl.

Take the second avocado, remove pit and scoop out flesh into a food processor (or you can use a blender for this if you don’t have a food processor).  Add about 3/4 cup ice cold water and puree.  Add more water if it’s still chunky until you get a smooth texture.  Add puree to the rest of the ingredients.  Add the remaining water and whisk all the ingredients together.  If it’s too thick add more water but be careful not to over thin it.  Add any seasoning as necessary.

The ice water is good if you are planning to serve right away but if you’re able, place the gazpacho in the fridge for up to an hour before serving.  When ready to serve, ladle into bowls and top with dollop of sour cream and sprinkle Cotija cheese.

Serves 4-6

Tacos

Chipotle Black Beans, Potato & Roasted Poblano Taco
- corn tortillas
- 1 can black beans
- 1 chipotle pepper marinated in adobo sauce (available at your grocery store)
- 2 small potatoes
- 1 poblano pepper
- Cotija cheese (optional)
- sour cream (optional)

Heat a pan on medium heat.  Slightly drain black beans (otherwise they come heavily salted). Dump them into the pan and allow them to heat through. Carefully remove 1 chipotle pepper and dice (if you don’t want to touch it drop it in a small food processor and pulse for a few seconds to chop up — you can also remove any seeds this way to lighten the heat).  Add diced pepper to beans and stir.  Add any other spices or ingredients you normally like to put with beans (I kept it to just the pepper since it’s already very spicy and the adobo sauce is a nice smoky roasted flavor; plus black beans alone are pretty hearty and flavorful).

On a grill, or grill pan (or in my instance we have a gas stove i just used the stove top), heat to a high heat.  If you are fortunate to use a gas stove like myself you can turn it on medium and place the poblano pepper directly on top of the flames.  If you are using a grill pan wait until the grill is completely hot before putting the pepper on the grill.  It will just be a slower process but should also do the job.  Roast the pepper until most of the outside of the pepper is blackened.  Once you are finished set aside and allow it to cool for a few minutes.

Your beans should be done cooking at this point. Reduce to a light heat to allow them to stay warm.  Take your potatoes and wash them thoroughly and remove any rough spots and “eyes” on the skin. You may remove the skin if you like but I preferred to keep mine on. Wrap the potatoes in saran wrap and microwave for about 3-3 1/2 minutes until just slightly tender.  You don’t want them to be super soft and mushy.  Remove from microwave and take off saran wrap and allow them to cool.

Back to the pepper, start peeling outside of pepper until all roasted skin is gone.  Then dice the pepper as normal.  Once potatoes have cooled cut into small wedges.

In a small pan heat corn tortillas.  As each one is heated place beans, potatoes & roasted pepper. Sprinkle Cotija cheese and add a dollop of sour cream if desired.

Ground Beef (”Beef”), Grilled Veggie & Chipotle Salsa Taco
- corn tortillas
- 2 cups ground beef or Morningstar Crumbles
- 2 tbsp taco seasoning
- 3/4 tbsp olive oil
- 1/2 cup sliced red pepper
- 1/2 cup sliced green pepper
- 1/4 cup sliced zucchini
- 1/4 cup sliced yellow squash
- 1/4 cup frozen corn kernels
- Cotija cheese (optional)

Chipotle Salsa
- 1 tomato cut into wedges
- 1/4 of a white onion
- 1 small chipotle pepper marinated in adobo sauce
- 1/2 garlic glove
- 1 tbsp cilantro
- 1 tbsp lemon juice

Heat a pan on medium-high heat.  Add beef (”beef”) to pan and allow to heat.  Add taco seasoning for some flavor.  In a separate pan, heat on medium and add olive oil.  Add squash, zucchini, peppers and corn kernels.  Cook for about 2 minutes or until veggies are slightly tender.

For salsa, using a food processor, add all ingredients and pulse 4 or 5 times.  If you’d like it less chunky then blend until smooth.

Remove beef and veggies from stove.  Heat corn tortillas as you would. Place beef in tortilla. Add veggies.  Dollop chipotle salsa on top (careful it’s spicy!). Grate Cotija cheese as desired.

Ok so perhaps my photo taking skills don’t show this to be an appetizing dish, but as for someone who dislikes eggplant it was absolutely delicious. Our garden afforded us practically every veggie that was used in this dish. My mom discovered a HUGE purple eggplant and tomatoes have practically overtaken our entire garden.  As a result I was asked to make use of both and I feel I delivered. I usually try and make recipes that are “semi-homemade” so it’s easy for every one but in this case the lesson learned here is spending zero dollars to make a filling and home cooked meal from scratch. Just a forewarning it does take a bit of time so if you’re looking for something quick and easy I would opt out of this recipe Vegan substitutions are written in pink

- 1 medium size eggplant
- 4-5 cups fresh tomatoes pitted
- 1 1/2 cup green bell peppers cut into strips
- 1 1/2 cup white onion cut into strips
- 1/4 chopped basil
- 1 tbsp fennel seeds (optional)
- 1 tbsp dried oregano (optional)
- salt and pepper to taste
- 4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tbsp garlic minced
- 1/3 cup milk (plain soymilk)
- 2 cups shredded cheese (soy cheese) (optional)

Heat a large pot on medium-high heat. Add 2 tbsp of olive oil and allow to heat up.  Add fennel seeds and minced garlic and cook for about a minute. You don’t want to turn the garlic brown.  Add tomatoes.  Allow them to heat through for about 5 minutes. Using a spatula start smashing tomatoes in the pot until you’ve broken up most of them.  You don’t want to season them just yet because there may still be a lot of water in them even if you have pitted them.  Don’t be too concerned with how watery it is as it’ll evaporate as it cooks.  Let that cook on medium heat for about 15 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees (pretty much the standard).  Cut even (or as even as you can get) slices of the eggplant about 1/4-1/2 inch thick depending on how large your eggplant is. Just remember thicker slices will take longer to cook than thinner slices.  Arrange all slices on a cookie sheet or pizza pan. Drizzle 2 tbsp of olive oil onto both sides and sprinkle salt and pepper. Place in the oven for about 5 minutes on each side just to start the cooking process.

Back to the sauce pot, add the oregano, peppers, and onions as they’ll cook in the sauce — for about 5 minutes.  Add milk and stir in and allow to cook for an additional 5 minutes. Generously add some salt and pepper. Top off with basil.

Remove your eggplant slices from the oven.  Spray a casserole or oven safe dish with non-stick cooking spray.  Once the sauce is done cooking, ladle a little bit onto the bottom and sides of the dish.  Layer a few slices of the eggplant at the bottom of the dish. Pour sauce over the first layer. Sprinkle cheese on top if desired. Repeat the process until you run out of eggplant.  Top it off with the remainder of the sauce and generously add cheese.

Bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes.  If you want a nice crusty top on the final minute broil on low.  Remove from oven and allow to cool for about 5-10 minutes before serving.

Like I said I dislike eggplant and I thought this was delicious! This easily served 6 people