Southeast Meets Western Frontier: Gazpacho

Southeast Meets Western Frontier Gazpacho.  Ree says this is one of her favorites, and I can see why!  I've never been a chilled soup fan (ever since I tried a yogurt chilled asparagus medley in high school), but this one is worth remembering.  

You'll notice I'm still struggling with posting images... so again, I appreciate your patience! 

Step One:  Beautiful shrimp

Wild caught $14.99/lb

The ingredients I used:

• 1 lb of shrimp
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/2 medium red onion
• 1 large cucumber
• 1 zucchini
• 2 celery stalks
• 2 large red tomatoes
• 1/2 a lemon
• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 2 teaspoons agave (in the place of 2 tablespoons sugar)
• 5 dashes of hot sauce
• sea salt and ground black pepper to taste
• 4 cups low sodium V8 juice
• 1 tablespoon dried cilantro
• avocado slices

Step Two:  Season and Saute Shrimp

Saute shrimp with desired seasoning

I used a Caribbean Jerk Seasoning for my shrimp BUT you could use any seasoning for your shrimp and be successful.  I usually use a Cajun seasoning with my shrimp, and that would also complement this soup well.  Luckily, Gazpacho is so flavorful it will go well with most all seasoned shrimp. 

Step Three:  Food Processor Magic

Vegetables in, Soup out

I love my food processor.  The recipe calls for adding the onion, garlic, lemon and half the other vegetables in the food processor along with the olive oil, hot sauce, red wine and 2 cups of the V8 juice.  That's great, except- if your food processor leaks due to all the liquid!  So I would actually modify this so that the entire 4 cups of V8 juice were simply in a pot to which the food processor mixture was added. Stir.

Step Four:  Finish soup

More veggies

To the pot containing the V8 juice and food processor mixture, add the remaining half of the vegetables and stir.  It is immediately delicious! 

Step Five:  Soup toppings

Yummy Soup! 

I topped 1 cup of the soup with 3 shrimp and half an avocado, sliced (I apologize for low picture quality... have faith, I'm sure to improve).  This easily makes 8 servings with the following nutritional information:

104 calories/ 10 g carbs/ 7 g fat/ 2 g protein per serving (1 cup of just the Gazpacho)

265 calories/ 19 g carbs/ 22 g fat/ 4 g protein per serving with half an avocado, sliced

328 calories/ 19 g carbs/ 23 g fat/ 17 g protein per serving with avocado and shrimp

**Notes**

1. Be careful- ALWAYS taste veggies before adding them.  For instance, the cucumber I bought was bitter when I tried to add it with peel, but once I peeled it, it tasted fine. 
2. Your food processor may leak... lesson learned.
3. I added 1/2 a lemon to this recipe to help it stay fresh longer... you know, in case all that salt from the V8 juice didn't work <sarcasm>. 
4. I made this and stored it in the refrigerator for one week. 
5. Woman's Day Magazine features a Tex-Mex Gazpacho this month that looks very good and is of a similar calorie count.