Wonders from the Summer Gardens (of Others!)

Last week brought some wonderful surprises in the produce department, especially in light of last week’s post (and the further encouragement to eat local in light of continuing salmonella outbreaks). My co-workers shared cucumbers, tomatoes (yellow and red!) and purple eyed peas. We are new to purple-eyed peas – but, being vegetarian, we are always open to the wonders of the bean world. So, amidst our usual hurried weeknight meals, we tried some new things.

The week started with the free cucumbers. I made cucumber almond gazpacho. My one year old loved it, but our four year old refused to try it. Her tastes change on a daily basis these days:) I love gazpacho because it’s so cool and refreshing in the summer and you can get very creative with ingredients. We have done cucumber gazpacho before but the almonds are new (I had a delicious almond gazpacho in New Orleans last month that served as the inspiration for this recipe).

Cucumber Almond Gazpacho

Ingredients:

• 1 cup whole almonds
• 4 medium size cucumbers or 6 small, peeled and roughly diced
• 2 T fresh dill
• 2 cloves garlic
• 2 T lemon juice
• 1 T olive oil
• 2 T white wine vinegar
• 1 cup water

Put dill and garlic in food processor and process briefly. Blanch almonds and peel. Add almonds and olive oil in food processor, and process for one minute. Add remaining ingredients and process until desired consistency. You will want to add more or less of the vinegar and water, depending on your taste and how thick you like it.