Fresh Tomato Soup

And this recipe for tomato soup was a fabulous surprise. No cooking at all, and absolutely delicious. I served it to Marcia, MellowBellies’ intrepid photographer, this evening and she kept saying, “It’s so sweet!” That was just because of the fabulous MellowBelly tomatoes. You’d only want to make this when you have really wonderful summer tomatoes. But it couldn’t be easier and I think it will keep for several days in the refrigerator. It does separate when it settles, so just shake it up before serving. The recipe came from the August 2010 issue of Woman’s Day magazine.

Watermelon Gazpacho

I’ve been experimenting with cold soups this week, and I’m really enjoying these two options which use a number of items from this week’s box.

I‘ve been a huge fan of gazpacho since my first taste at the Peasant Uptown at Phipps Plaza (which means I’m really dating myself since they’ve been closed for years). Spicy, flavorful tomato gazpacho, topped with shrimp … and served with their cheese toast …. it opened my eyes to the pleasures of cold soup. Now most summers I keep a half gallon jar of gazpacho in the refrigerator as soon as the tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers come in.

Recently I’ve been seeing recipes for watermelon gazpacho, and this week I finally tried it out. Delicious! Here’s one way to make it, but I’ve seen it demonstrated by chefs at local farmers’ markets using many variations including adding tomatoes, using more hot peppers, or varying herbs like using dill. I liked this recipe because it used what I have in my garden and box right now. You could leave out the crab, or substitute shrimp. The sweet seafood is a nice foil for the spicy fruitiness of the soup.