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.
