In the past three days we’ve been to the emergency room twice – on Tuesday at 4 a.m. for my son’s alarmingly high fever, and then this morning at 4 a.m. for my husband’s kidney stones. I haven’t slept more than a few hours this week and I’m feeling a little weepy, so naturally I made watermelon gazpacho (it’s the only thing to do in this situation). There really is nothing extraordinary about my recipe, but I thought I would share because it is so hard to be sad when you are slurping this charming combination of sweet, salty, flavor and bright pink hue.
I am so exhausted that I feel as if I may go blind, or my whole body will collapse into my shoes and all that the police will find are my empty clothes, so please forgive spelling and grammar laziness.
Chilled Watermelon Gazpacho
Ingredients:
1 lb watermelon, diced into small cubes
1/2 cup very ripe cherry tomatoes, preferably just pulled off of your tomato vine that is crawling up the side of your house and blocking the light from the windows (doesn’t everyone have one of those?)
1/2 cup cucumber, peeled and chopped small
About 2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil leaves (no dried basil!)
3/4 cup cider vinegar
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 teaspoon salt
Method:
Toss everything into a blender and puree until you reach a desired texture (I like mine to have a few chunks in it, but it is up to you). Chill and serve. Consider adding a few other herbs to the mix if you want. I think that mint or Italian parsley would be delicious, but it was three extra steps for me to shuffle from the basil plant to the mint plant in the herb garden and I just don’t have the energy.
The Reluctant Matron 