Chunky Gazpacho Recipe with Roasted Red Peppers

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This Chunky Gazpacho recipe with roasted red peppers is an easy, fresh and delicious lunch, brunch, or dinner starter or main dish!

Chunky Gazpacho Recipe with Roasted Red Peppers - Talking Meals (1)

This Roasted Red Pepper Easy Gazpacho recipe is perfect for all Seasons. It’s cool, tangy, crunchy, fresh, and even creamy. Is it a soup? Is it a salad? I say, why put labels on this wonder bowl. It’s just amazing.

Gazpacho was a staple on my appetizer menu when I was catering in NYC and clients loved it when it was served in shot glasses – so cute! Back then I did a very traditional Gazpacho recipe, but I wanted to change it up for this recipe. Here, the base is still tomato, but this Gazpacho recipe puts Roasted Red Pepper in the starring role, which is what sets it apart from the more traditional gazpacho. The red pepper brings another layer of creamy sweetness to this soup. Then you get the crunch from the green pepper and cucumber. Finally you get the peppery bite from the garlic and scallions.

Chunky Gazpacho Recipe with Roasted Red Peppers - Talking Meals (2)

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Simple Ingredients and Substitutes

Tomato Juice – Tomato juice is usually found in the beverage aisle of the grocery store. There are typically a few brands including generic labels available. However, if you cannot find it or don’t have it on hand, you can substitute with a can of tomato sauce (unseasoned) supplemented with a teaspoon of sugar, a ½ teaspoon of salt, and enough water to thin it out and get to the 2.5 cups needed.
Roasted Red Peppers – You can usually find canned or bottled roasted red peppers in the canned vegetable section or fresh roasted red peppers in the deli section. I prefer the once packed in water, but you can use the once packed in oil. In this case, I would also use this leftover oil in place of the Extra Virgin Olive Oil listed below.
Fresh Garlic cloves, minced – Fresh is best when it comes to garlic, but you can buy pre-minced garlic to save time or mince it in bulk andfreeze itfor use when you need it! If you don’t have fresh, you can use garlic powder or flakes.
Scallions (green onions) – Scallions (green onions) – I love scallions for the green color and mild onion-flavor. You can swap with finely minced yellow or red onion or even shallots.
Cucumber, diced – My favorite cucumber is an English cucumber. They are long and thin, usually individually wrapped, and a bit more expensive than regular cucumbers. But I believe you get more value. With English cucumbers, you can eat the skin as it’s very thin and delicate. They also do not have large seeds, so you can use the entire cucumber! With regular cucumbers, the skin is thick, tough, and waxy, so you need to peel them first. They usually have large seeds that you will want to discard and therefore, you aren’t actually getting to use the entire cucumber.
Green Pepper, diced – I love green pepper in this recipe as it brings a subtle peppery note and lots of crunch. However, you can leave it out or swap in another veggie. You can use more cucumber, add in jalapeno for some spice, or finely diced celery for crunch.
Extra Virgin Olive Oil – Adding this at the end gives a final touch of richness, but it is not necessary if you want to skip it.
Red Wine Vinegar – If you don’t have red wine vinegar, you can swap in white wine vinegar, apple cider vinegar, rice wine vinegar, or even lime juice.
Ground Black Pepper – You can use fine or coarse ground black pepper. I like fresh ground, but pre-ground is fine too.
Salt – I used kosher salt, but any salt will work.

Easy Prep (No Cooking) for this Chunky Gazpacho Recipe!

The great thing about this soup, aside from the amazing flavors, is that it doesn’t need to cook! You simply dice, chop, slice, mix, and set in the fridge! That said, you do need to do this a day in advance so that all of the amazing flavors can come together and infuse the tomato juice.

Let’s start with the base of this soup. Tomato Juice is the starting point, the canvas with which we paint our delicious Gazpacho recipe upon. The tomato juice is light, not too thick, so it’s a perfect backdrop to our soup. You could use a vegetable juice, such as V8, as long as the primary ingredient is tomato and it looks and tastes like tomato juice.

Next comes the garlic. The garlic must be minced. I mean really minced or else you risk getting a raw piece of garlic in a bite and that may not be very delightful, if you know what I mean :). To ensure I get a good mince easily, I use theOXO Good Grips Soft-Handled Garlic Press. It seriously makes mincing garlic so easy and it’s also easy to clean and just put into the dishwasher.

Chunky Gazpacho Recipe with Roasted Red Peppers - Talking Meals (4)

Red Peppers are the star!

As the recipe title implies, Roasted Red Peppers are the star here. You need a 12oz jar of roasted red peppers. Roasting your own red peppers is an option, by charring them over a flame and then putting them in a plastic bag to steam and then wiping the skin off. You will need 1 very large or 2 smaller red peppers to equal the amount you get in a 12oz jar.

Simply drain and put the roasted red peppers in a food processor and blend until smooth. It’s fine to have it slightly chunky, in fact that’s how I like it in this recipe! Add the blended red pepper to the tomato juice.