Melon and tomato gazpacho
When entertaining on a hot summer night, I like to bring out small glasses of melon-tomato gazpacho that have been chilling in the fridge. Colorful and refreshing, you can make a red, orange or green gazpacho, depending on which tomato and melon varieties you pair together. Use ripe green tomatoes, such as Green Zebra, with sweet green melons, such as Ha’Ogen, Galia or honeydew; use ripe red, yellow or orange tomatoes with orange-fleshed melons.
Set aside ½ cup of the melon pieces and place the remaining melon in a blender. Peel the tomatoes using a swivel-blade peeler or by plunging into boiling water for 30 seconds and slipping off skins. Cut the tomatoes in half crosswise and squeeze out the seeds over a sieve set over the blender jar to catch the juices. Cut the tomatoes into chunks.
Add the tomatoes, onion, bread, mint, lime juice, oil, half the chopped chile, salt and water to the blender. Blend to a rough puree, adding additional water as needed to create a soup-like consistency. Cover and chill for at least 1 hour.
Taste the soup and add more salt and lime juice if desired. Meanwhile, mince the remaining chile and finely dice the reserved melon, placing both in a bowl. Halve the cucumber lengthwise, then seed, peel and finely dice, and add to the bowl. Stir to mix.
Serve the gazpacho in iced bowls or mugs and top each serving with a little of the chile-melon-cucumber mixture.
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