Easy Heirloom Tomato Gazpacho Recipe

Name: Easy Heirloom Tomato Gazpacho Recipe
Prep time: 15 min
Ingredients: 6 large Heirloom tomatoes of various colors, cored and sliced; 1 English cucumber, sliced with skin on; 2 orange or yellow bell peppers, sliced; 1/2 large red onion, sliced; 3-4 medium carrots, peeled and sliced; 2 Tbsp of salt, divided; 2 tsp. of garlic, minced; 1 cup of extra virgin olive oil (Make sure this is a good, quality olive oil); 2-3 Tbsp. of sherry vinegar (I recommend starting with two and then adding a third at the end if you feel like it needs more acid. ); 1.5 Tbsp lemon juice; 1/2 cup water; Additional salt and pepper to taste; Toppings: Cream fresh, basil, pinenuts, mustard seeds, sunflower seeds

Rachel Quenzer

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I’ve been wanting to make tomato gazpacho for at least a month now. It’s one of those things I’ve been dying to try but just didn’t feel like I had the time to commit to make it, which was silly really because it’s one of the easiest and least time-consuming recipes I’ve ever made.

It’s also one of the tastiest things I’ve ever made and its vegan and Whole 30 approved.

Why Heirloom Tomatoes for Tomato Gazpacho

With the bounty of summer vegetables right now you basically can pick a bunch of them and blend. After doing some research, I decided to make a tomato-based gazpacho and not just any tomatoes, but heirloom tomatoes.

Heirloom tomatoes are tomatoes that have been produced through seeds that have been handed down for generations. The seeds are technically the “heirloom” in heirloom tomatoes and some have been in circulation for more than 50 years, according to tomatofest.com.

Heirloom tomatoes have been bread to eliminate the most undesirable characteristics and bolster the positive traits – juiciness, flavor, color, size – that specific farmers enjoyed.

All heirloom tomatoes are open-pollinated, meaning they are a product of natural cross-pollination via insects or farmers’ hands. They aren’t genetically modified or created in the same manner as today’s common tomatoes.

Because of this, heirloom tomatoes are not mass produced. With fewer available they often have higher prices than their counterpart tomatoes.

Impeccable Taste

So why would you pay extra for a tomato that looks kind of funny? Simply put, they taste better. There’s something about the way heirloom tomatoes taste that almost seems to have all that history tied up into them. And, I guess they do since the seeds produced from generation to generation are there.

With all those benefits going for them, they seemed like the perfect base for the gazpacho. That said, because you’re using heirloom tomatoes, you might not get the exact same flavor every single time, but I’ll try to get you as close as possible with the recipe below.

Note 1:

I’ve made this a few times now and before adding additional ingredients to try to get the taste closer to your desired taste, let it sit. Give the flavors time to mingle once it’s done before you do things like add additional acids like more lemon juice or sherry. The second time I made this I started adding more sherry right away to change the taste profile since I used smaller heirloom tomatoes and it was way too much. Follow the recipe and then just before serving decide if it needs anything else. I think you’ll find out it’s fine. 🙂

Note 2:

English cucumbers are also used in this Heirloom Tomato Gazpacho. They are sweeter and seem to balance out the acid of the tomatoes better. Make sure to use this kind.

Final note: If you decide to use regular tomatoes for this I don’t stand by the flavor this recipe might produce. Find the Heirlooms.

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