Gazpacho

Ingredients:

25 g white wine vinegar
25 g apple cider vinegar
25 g rice vinegar
600 g tomatoes
450 g cucumber
450 g red bell pepper
1 jalapeño
60 g red onion (¼ onion)
60 g sweet onion (¼ onion)
3 cloves garlic
2 tsp kosher salt
815 ml tomato juice
½ tsp ground black pepper
olive oil

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1. In a small bowl combine white wine vinegar, apple cider vinegar, and rice vinegar. Set a mesh strainer over this small bowl.

2. Core top half of tomatoes to remove stem area. Cut tomatoes in half at the equator. Using finger, push out juice and seeds from inner cavities of tomatoes into the mesh strainer from step 1. Next, dice tomatoes into ¼ inch pieces and place in a large 4 quart nonreactive bowl (cannot be aluminum, copper, or cast iron).

3. Peel half of the available cucumbers. Cut cucumbers in half, lengthwise, and scoop out seeds into mesh strainer. Cut cucumbers into ¼ inch strips and then dice into ¼ inch pieces. Add to large bowl.

4. Cut off tops and bottoms of bell peppers. Remove seeds and waxy flesh from insides. Cut bell peppers into ¼ inch strips (not disks) and then cut these strips into ¼ inch pieces. Cut the usable parts of the tops and bottoms into ¼ pieces also. Add to large bowl.

5. Process jalepeño in the same manner as the bell peppers but dice into smaller pieces. Add to large bowl.

6. Dice both types of onions into ¼ inch pieces and add to large bowl.

7. Mince or press garlic cloves and add to large bowl.

8. Sprinkle salt over vegetables in large bowl, stir and let sit at room temperature for 5 minutes.

9. With the back of a spoon, press on tomato and cucumber juices sitting in the mesh strainer so they release excess juice down into the small bowl of vinegars. Discard seeds.

10. In a blender, combine 1 cup of diced vegetables from the large bowl and half of tomato juice. Mix for 20 seconds.

11. After the large bowl of vegetables has been able to sit for 5 minutes, add in the mixture from the blender, the small bowl of vinegars, remaining tomato juice, and ground black pepper. Stir well and salt to taste.

12. Allow 4 hours to chill in the refrigerator before serving, or for best result, serve on the next day. This makes a big difference and gives the flavors time to meld.

13. When serving, drizzle a small amount of olive oil over each serving.

Notes:
Best eaten with fresh bread, or topped with croutons, or sprinkled with freshly made bread crumbs. Bread crumbs are easily made by placing torn pieces of fresh bread in a food processor and processing until bread is torn down into small pieces. This will add a little body to the soup and thicken it.