Gazpacho II

It is amazing to me what the lack of humidity does to a "hot" day. I'm visiting the beautiful state of colorado right now and the change from Cleveland's weather is shocking. I honestly forgot how amazing the dry heat is. A 90 degree day literally feels like a 78 degrees with humidity day back in Ohio.

Still, though, a hot day is a hot day, and in my estimation, a hot day needs a cold soup. What better cold soup to make than a realy good Gazpacho? So I looked through my mom's cookbooks and found quite a few that I like. One of them had a Gazpacho recipe that looked worth trying -- so we did, and it was worth it.

Gazpacho
Serves 6

• 4-5 cups cold tomato juice (I just used one of those large cans)
• 1 small onion - minced
• 2 cans diced tomatoes
• 1 green pepper - diced
• 1 cucumber - diced
• 2 scallions - chopped
• 1 clove of garlic - minced
• 2 t lemon juice
• 1 T lime juice
• 2 T wine vinegar
• 1 t tarragon
• 1 t basil
• dash or two of ground cumin
• 1 t honey
• 1/4 c fresh chopped parsley
• 2 T Olive Oil
• salt and pepper to taste

-- Combine all ingredients and let chill 2 hours before serving.

Note: I pureed about 1/3 of the soup to give it a better texture. You can puree it all if you want, too, to save you time.