Watermelon-Tomato Gazpacho with a Kick {Low-Carb + Raw + GF + Vegetarian}

I recently tried gazpacho at a new restaurant in my area that works with locally produced foods--the name of the restauraunt is fittingly, Local Foods.  I remember having had gazpacho once in the past and not liking it, perhaps it was residual distaste for it produced by an episode of  The Simpsons I watched as a kid where Lisa Simpson made gazpacho as a much derided vegetarian alternative to a roast pig (Homer's doing, of course).  My takeaway feeling from the episode was that I'd eat gazpacho when pigs could fly, but incidentally by the end of the episode Homer's roasted pig was, literally, a flying pig.  So, it was destiny...  

Watermelon-Tomato Gazpacho with a Kick
{Vegetarian + Vegan + Low-Carb + Gluten Free + Raw}

The day I discovered my repressed love of gazpacho I was faced with the choice of getting either a cup of watermelon and tomato gazpacho or committing to an entire (definitely not low carb--oh no!)  falafel sandwich.  I've never been a huge fan of raw-tomatoes except on salads.  I regrettably hate Bloody Mary's--the spectre and the alcoholic brunch drink--and V-8 juice and so when I opted to try the soup I harbored a great fear that tomato gazpacho was bad enough, but adding melons to it would make it...well, even less good. 

But, as it so happens, I was wrong.  It took me a while to get used to the soup--its coldness and the sweet and savory combination, but I decided by the end of the cup that I really liked it.  And, weeks later, I still craved more of it--and, indeed, went back and had more!--and continued to crave it.  Hence, me trying my hand at making it for myself.

The base recipe I used was this one: Watermelon + Tomato Gazpacho  But, as I usually do--just to make things more interesting and usually more tasty, to boot, I tweaked the recipe so that it would more closely mimic the gazpacho I had gotten at the restaurant which was was more tomato-heavy with a hit of garlic and spiciness.  The changes I made to the recipe are as follows:

• Doubled tomatoes from 2 to 4

• Added 1/4 large yellow bell pepper

• Used 2 serrano chili peppers, partially seeded

• Used 4 small cloves of garlic

• Did NOT strain or liquify ingredients (I wanted a little bit of texture)

• Used blender rather than food processor

To garnish my soup I used matchsticks of jicama, cilantro leaves, and chunks of watermelon.  After photographing I added some diced avocado.

The soup was delicious and it hits ALL  of my dietary likes:  my watermelon-tomato gazpacho with a kick is Vegetarian (Vegan, even), Gluten Free, Raw, and Low-Carb!  Score!   Even if, like me, you are disposed to think the watermelon and tomato combination seems suspect, give it a try.  I feel pretty confident that it will surprise you--in a good way.

Happy, Healthy, Weird Eating!

Kate

No Shortage of Good Food Blogs...BUT

There is no shortage of good food blogs out there.  If you're a food lover you've undoubtedly already found most of my favorite go-to blogs and food websites whose recipes and photography regularly blow me away:

1. Smitten Kitchen, see:  http://smittenkitchen.com/
2. Tartelette, see:  http://www.tarteletteblog.com/
3. Love and Lemons, see:  http://www.loveandlemons.com/
4. Food & Wine, see:  http://www.foodandwine.com/
5. Food Republic, see:  http://www.foodrepublic.com/

Technically, that last one--Food Republic--is geared specifically toward male cooks and manly eating, but they've got some great recipes and food related articles that transcend any silly gender distinctions!  

In spite of the fact that there's a LOT of great food blogging and online food writing happening, I find myself and my particular diet to be a bit marginal and underrepresented--more so than I ever would have anticipated.  I'm a vegetarian--have been for most of my life--and also a recent convert to a more carb-conscious, more Gluten Free, and more raw diet.  Notice my use of the world "more" in the prior sentence--I don't eat exclusively raw foods, nor do I eat zero net carbs, or totally abstain from gluten products, but I'm serious about tackling a rare diet: a pseudo- raw, pseduo- Gluten Free and low-carb vegetarian diet.  Crazy, right?  I hope not!

Raw Zucchini Spaghetti with Sun-Dried Tomato
Pesto and Mozzarella
{Veg. + GF + Low-Carb + Raw(ish)}

For those of you who think that's a plausible, probably fairly well represented dietary typology you can do what I did: try doing a search on amazon.com, that great repository of print material, for "vegetarian" and "low-carb" cookbook and you'll not find much--a few raw cookbooks might pop up, and a few vegetarian, low-carb cookbooks that were invented, apparently, before cameras were (i.e., they have no photographs!).  Now, try adding "Gluten Free" to the search box.  Woah!  Nothing there, right?  Now, for the sake of comparison--because this is all very scientific, you see-- type in low-carb cookbooks and omit that pesky "vegetarian" bit and you'll get more hits than you could probably handle sorting through in one sitting and, by golly, those cookbooks have PICTURES.    

I'm being a bit tongue-in-cheek, as I'm wont to do, but I know there are people out there who live or want to live wholly or partially a diet like the one I'm pursing and I know they are as frustrated as me that they can't just do a simple google search or simply buy a decent cookbook on Amazon.  Instead, they restlessly comb recipe boards on pinterest.com searching for recipes when they should be doing other things...like dating or working or, you know, whatever you think is important.  So, this is where I'm hoping to make my contribution to the very good food blogging and food writing already out there.  I'll do the pinterest and google searches and cook the food, you can just sit back, relax and benefit.  Just remember that one day I'm going to expect a humanitarian or Nobel award out of it, though!

Whoops!  Here I am all the way at the end of my first post and I haven't even introduced myself.  I'm Kate and I cook.  I cook exclusively vegetarian foods.  I cook low-carb.  I cook Gluten Free.  I cook raw.  I don't always do them simultaneously.  I sometimes cheat.  But, what you'll get from me here is the crazy range of foods I cook--like the raw zucchini spaghetti with sun-dried tomato pesto above and to your right--on a daily basis for myself and for the people I love in the hopes that if you're the person like me searching for recipes that match your diet that you'll be able to find them here, with me, on this blog.  

Happy, Healthy, Weird Eating!

Kate