Garden fresh ingredients for delicious, healthy, quick meals

I love to support our local farmers market every Saturday and enjoy the best of the week’s crops. I can feel confident that these fresh, organic ingredients are not genetically modified or engineered and I feel good about that.

Field greens, herbs, carrots, corn, tomatoes, zucchini and, of course, fresh baked breads, organic coffee and homemade cheese. The best part is sampling all the fresh foods and seeing the locals (with their pups).

I’ve added a couple of my favorite recipes for quick, cold soups on a hot summer evening.

Avocado Corn Gazpacho

From the Zia Diner in Santa Fe

Ingredients:

• 1 zucchini, coarsely chopped
• 1 yellow squash, coarsely chopped
• 1 red bell pepper, coarsely chopped
• 1 small yellow onion, coarsely chopped
• 1 serrano chile, seeds removed, coarsely chopped (optional)
• 1 teaspoon chopped garlic
• 3 ripe avocados
• 1 1/2 cups blanched corn
• 1/2 cup finely diced tomato
• 1/3 cup finely chopped cilantro leaves
• 1/2 cup lime juice
• 5 cups ice cold water
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Directions: Put the zucchini, yellow onion, bell pepper, onion, serrano and garlic in bowl of food processor and pulse briefly. The pieces should be small but not minced or soupy. Transfer the vegetable mixture to a large bowl. Halve and pit the avocados. Put 1/2 an avocado in the food processor and pulse to puree. Dice the remaining 1 1/2 avocados. To the bowl of vegetables, add the avocado puree, diced avocado, fresh corn, tomatoes, cilantro, lime juice, cold water, and salt and pepper. Mix gently with a large spoon. Adjust the salt and pepper, to taste. Cover and refrigerate until ice cold. Serve in soup bowls with tortilla chips on top.

Gazpacho

Alton Brown’s recipe

Ingredients:

• 1 hothouse cucumber, halved and seeded, but not peeled
• 2 red bell peppers, cored and seeded
• 4 plum tomatoes
• 1 red onion
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 24 ounces tomato juice (3 cups)
• 1/4 cup white wine vinegar
• 1/4 cup good olive oil (EVOO)
• 1/2 tablespoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper

Directions: Roughly chop the cucumbers, bell peppers, tomatoes, and red onions into 1-inch cubes. Put each vegetable separately into a food processor fitted with a steel blade and pulse until it is coarsely chopped. Do not overprocess!

After each vegetable is processed, combine them in a large bowl and add the garlic, tomato juice, vinegar, olive oil, salt, and pepper. Mix well and chill before serving. The longer gazpacho sits, the more the flavors develop.

Tags

Natural Foods

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