I recently visited Washington, D.C., and hosted a cooking demo at the small, up-and-coming H Street market to promote our new EatingWell in Season book. The most popular dishes? The amazing tomato recipes we made with farm-fresh tomatoes from the table in the picture below.
We made recipes that were easy enough to prepare right at the market with nothing more than a knife and cutting board. I worked with kids from Through the Kitchen Door, a nonprofit group that teaches inner-city kids and recent immigrants how to cook healthy meals. Here they are dicing tomatoes for Raw Tomato Sauce. We tossed it with pasta and handed it out to people at the market. It was a big hit!
We also made a Tomato & Green Olive Salsa, an Italian-inspired salsa with fresh oregano, green olives and hot pepper relish. It takes just 10 minutes to make and tastes great with store-bought or easy homemade tortilla chips or baked pita chips.
After seeing all that gorgeous fresh produce I couldn’t wait to get home and into the kitchen to make some gazpacho. I wait all year long for “gazpacho season.” Now that I’m home, I’m going to bust out my blender and make this amazing, easy Grilled Tomato Gazpacho (see picture below). However you decide to eat tomatoes, just don’t wait. Tomatoes are never as good any other time of the year as they are right now. Enjoy them while they’re here!
2 pounds ripe plum tomatoes
1 small red bell pepper
1 English cucumber, peeled and seeded, divided
1/2 cup torn fresh or day-old country bread (crusts removed)
1 small clove garlic
2-3 tablespoons red-wine vinegar
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
1/4 teaspoon piment d’Espelette (see Ingredient Note below) or hot
Spanish paprika or pinch of cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1. Preheat grill to medium-high.
2. Grill tomatoes and bell pepper, turning a few times, until they
soften and the skins are blistered and charred in spots, about 8
minutes. Transfer the pepper to a plastic bag and let it steam
until cool enough to handle. Peel off the skin; cut the pepper in
half and discard the stem and seeds. Place one half in a blender.
When the tomatoes are cool enough to handle, core and roughly chop.
Add the tomatoes, skins and all, to the blender.
3. Add half the cucumber to the blender along with bread, garlic,
vinegar to taste, parsley, piment d’Espelette (or paprika or
cayenne), salt and pepper. Blend until smooth. Add oil and blend
until well combined. Refrigerate until room temperature or chilled,
at least 1 hour.
4. Before serving, finely dice the remaining cucumber and bell
pepper; stir half of each into the gazpacho and garnish with the
remaining cucumber and bell pepper.
Per serving: 84 calories; 5 g fat (1 g sat, 4 g mono); 0 mg cholesterol; 9 g carbohydrate; 2 g protein; 2 g fiber; 219 mg sodium; 405 mg potassium. Nutrition bonus: Vitamin C (60% daily value), Vitamin A (35% dv).
Ingredient Note: Piment d’Espelette is a sweet, mildly spicy pepper, from the French side of the Basque region, ground into powder.
By Jessie Price
EatingWell deputy food editor Jessie Price's professional background in food started when she worked in restaurant kitchens in the summers during college. She started out testing recipes for EatingWell and then joined the staff here full-time in 2004 when she moved to Vermont from San Francisco.
Related Links from EatingWell:
- Find healthy recipes in over 100 recipe collections—from chicken to Chinese to cake—at eatingwell.com.
- Find more than 100 delicious seasonally-inspired recipes in our newest book, EatingWell in Season: The Farmers’ Market Cookbook.
- Sign up for EatingWell's free weekly newsletters and get healthy recipes, diet tips and nutrition news delivered right to your inbox.
- Get a free trial issue when you subscribe to EatingWell Magazine.
