Recipe Time Out: Gary's Gazpacho

As promised in his guest post, "Rapping Up:  Football and Hip-Hop," I present Gary's recipe!  It's for a healthy and tasty dish called "Gazpacho a la 2 or 3 Lines" (a reference, you'll recall, to his wildly popular and pithy blog that can be found at www.2or3lines.blogspot.com):

Ingredients:

One cucumber

One green pepper

One yellow onion

28-oz. can diced or crushed tomatoes

46-oz. can V8 or tomato juice

16-oz. jar Pace Picante salsa (mild, medium, or hot)

Lemon or orange juice

Chopped, crushed or minced garlic

Salt and pepper

One avocado (optional)

Instructions:

Peel cucumber, cut in half lengthwise, remove seeds, and slice. Peel and cut onion into large pieces. Cut green pepper into quarters and remove seeds and pith.

Put the cucumber, onion, green pepper, and the diced or crushed tomatoes into a blender or food processor. Add as much salsa as you want -- the more you add, the spicier the gazpacho will be. (Doh!) Add a few squirts of lemon juice or a splash of orange juice, a spoonful or two of garlic, and salt and pepper to taste. Add about half of the V8 or tomato juice and blend to the desired degree of smoothness. Add more juice if the gazpacho is too thick.

Refrigerate for a few hours before serving. You want the gazpacho to be cool enough to be refreshing, but not too cold. Topping the gazpacho with a slice or two of avocado is a nice finishing touch.

This is a summertime favorite of mine -- a delicious and healthy way to add a couple of servings of vegetables to your diet. (It is 100% fat-free. If sodium is an issue for you, use low-sodium V8 or tomato juice and don't add any salt.)