Enjoying Summer's Bounty

It has been such glorious weather these past few weeks so we have been enjoying lunch on our balcony as often as we can.  It is nice to be able to sit out and enjoy the bustle of the city passing us by and watch the herons, turtles and other waterfowl in the park across the street.

We walked to a different neighborhood market on Saturday morning, and, inspired by all the lovely fresh local produce, I came home and made us a cold gazpacho for lunch... and decided to dress up our balcony surroundings a bit, by turning it into an Italian Trattoria!

I used our red checked linens on the table, and The Captain poured us each a cold glass of Pino Grigio to go with the soup that I whipped up in few short minutes, with the food processor.  It was really nice to sit out and watch the turtles come and go from a log in the lake at the park across the street and while away some time....

The soup is just a bunch of ingredients that you already likely have on hand... and it has very few calories, lots of vitamins and antioxidants.!  You can certainly improvise and add what you like for seasonings.  If you have more time than I did, you may want to leave it chill in the fridge for an hour or more before you eat it. And, if you like you can add a bit of olive oil to it if you haven't had your healthy oil servings for the day.

I would suggest this easily makes an appetizer course for 4 people or a lunch for 2.



My Summery Gazpacho
Makes about 4 cups

• 2 cups canned diced tomatoes, including some juice
• 1 clove garlic, peeled
• 1/2 medium onion
• 1/2 medium green pepper
• 6 inch piece of long English cucumber
• 1 Tbs lemon juice
• Fresh basil, 4 or 5 large leaves, or 1 Tbs dried basil
• Salt and pepper to taste

1. Place all of the vegetables inthe bowl of a food processor.  Add 3 basil leaves and a few dashes of salt and pepper.
2. Puree about 30 seconds.
3. Remove to fridge and chill thoroughly.
4. Divide into bowls and garnish with the other basil leaves and a bit of parmesan cheese and tomato pieces.
5. Serve chilled.

The whole batch only has 145 calories and is made up of vegetables so I didn't bother to break down the nutritional information for this recipe.

Simply puree everything in the food processor.

 

The table, set and waiting for us!

Buon Appetito!



 

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