I've gotta vent for a second: it's SO hot where I live! I know that it gets hot when you live in the desert, but for some reason I forget about that during the non-summer months and it seems to surprise me every time June and July roll around.
Soup is the very last thing I would ever want to eat this time of year, except when it's cold gazpacho! These days, a big bowl of cold gazpacho is exactly what I want to be eating, especially when it's topped with crispy mint pesto croutons.
If you're not familiar with gazpacho, it's a soup made from raw veggies and then served cold, so it's really refreshing and perfect for summer. Gazpacho is kinda like salsa that you get to eat with a spoon, and that is what I love about it!
I used half regular tomatoes and half cherry tomatoes in this gazpacho, and it gives it such a great taste. The cherry tomatoes give it a little sweetness that really adds to the depth of flavor.
As much as I'm digging this cherry tomato gazpacho, I'm really digging these mint pesto croutons! You could us any kind of pesto, but I love the flavors of mint with tomato. All you do is mix some bread with pesto and then crisp it up in the oven and you've got some super flavorful croutons that also happen to be bright green!
Ingredients
For the cherry tomato gazpacho:
- 1 pint cherry tomatoes cut in half
- 3 vine ripe tomatoes roughly chopped
- 1 medium hothouse cucumber roughly chopped
- 1 large red bell pepper roughly chopped
- ½ white onion roughly chopped
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
- ½ teaspoon salt
For the mint pesto croutons
- 2 cups spinach or your favorite greens
- 1 cup mint leaves
- 3 tablespoons nutritional yeast
- 3 tablespoons chopped cashews or your favorite nut
- ¼ cup + 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 clove garlic minced
- Juice of ½ lemon
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 3 cups diced bread
Instructions
- Place all of the gazpacho ingredients into a blender or the bowl of a food processor fitted with an S-blade. Blend until desired consistency is reached. I like mine a little chunky but you can make it as chunky or smooth as you like. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
- To make the croutons, preheat the oven to 400°F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Add the greens, mint, nutritional yeast, cashews, olive oil, garlic, lemon and salt to the bowl of a food processor fitted with an S-blade and blend until combined, 30 seconds to 1 minute.
- Add ¼ cup of pesto and the diced bread to a medium sized bowl and mix until all of the bread is coated. Transfer bread to the parchment paper lined baking sheet and bake until crispy, 10-12 minutes, flipping once.
- Ladle the gazpacho into bowls. Top the gazpacho with croutons and a spoonful of extra pesto, if desired.
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