The Best Gazpacho Soup on Earth (honest!) and Weighing yourself – when is it too much?

This is absolutely the BEST Gazpacho soup recipe on earth. My sister-in-law, Helen, gave me this recipe, after tasting her Gazpacho soup at her home one long summer Shabbat years ago.  With her kind permission I am happy that I can share it with all of you!

Did I hear you say you don’t like cold soups?  Nonsense!  Taste this soup just once and I guarantee you will love cold soups from this moment on!

Gazpacho soup is wonderful for our hot-hot summers since it is cold, crunchy and the absolute perfect soup for summer Shabbat meals!  You can have it on Erev Shabbat and again for Shabbat lunch. It is also insanely points-friendly and a cinch to make!

Just a warning: the way I make it – it is a soup and a salad and meal all-in-one!

Helen’s  Best Gazpacho Soup on Earth

Ingredients:

·        Tomato juice 1 liter container

·        1-2 cups tomatoes – diced into very small cubes

·        ½ to 1 cup red peppers – diced into very small cubes

·        1 to 1½ cups celery – diced into very small cubes

·          1 to 1½ cups cucumber – diced into very small cubes

·        ¼ to ½ cup onion – diced into very small cubes

·        2-3 cloves of garlic – mashed in garlic press

·        Fresh parsley – finely chopped 

·        2-3 tablespoons red wine or balsamic vinegar

·        Freshly ground pepper

·        2-3 jiggers of Tabasco sauce or Worcestershire sauce

·        Water

·        Very large bowl

Portion size: Two full ladlefuls of this great soup in a bowl.  Enjoy it – cold and crispy!

How to work:

1.   The first and most important thing to do is to buy a container of tomato juice and PUT IT IN THE FRIDGE the minute you get home!  This way the soup starts out cold and will only get better!

I usually buy more than one container at a time, so I can make this soup whenever the mood strikes me.

I also believe that this soup tastes much better the next day!  So if you can, make this soup on Thursday!

If I make this soup on Friday, this is the first thing I make, so that it has enough time to get really COLD in the fridge.

2.   The quantities I listed are for a dense and thick with vegetables soup, the way I like it.  You can halve the vegetable quantities if you like a more soup than vegetable ratio.

3.   Dice all the vegetables into very small pieces.  I use the chopping attachment to my hand blender to chop up all my vegetables except:

·        Tomatoes  The hand blender turned the tomatoes to near sauce.  Tomatoes must be cut by hand.

·        Garlic  Pressing the garlic, as opposed to chopping it, produces a garlicky flavor and gives the soup that extra kick!

·        Parsley  You can use your hand blender/chopper, just be careful you do not over chop and create a paste!

4.   Place all the vegetables, including the mashed garlic and parsley, in a very large bowl. The bowl you use should be large enough to easily and comfortably mix all the ingredients without spilling. 

5.   Pour in the tomato juice.

6.   I feel you should add some water to the soup.  The best way to add the water is to pour cold water into the empty tomato juice container – this way you “clean out” the container of any left over juice - and then pour it into the bowl.  You can add between a quarter to half a container of water.

The amount of water you add, as always, depends on how you like your soup.  If you prefer a thick, chunky soup, add only a quarter (or even a bit less) container of water.  If you prefer a looser soup, add half a container of water.  Do not add more than these amounts as you will dilute the tomato juice and diminish the taste of the soup.

7.   Tabasco or Worcestershire? So which sauce do you add?  Helen’s original recipe lists Worcestershire.  If you want a mild soup use this.  If you want more kick or heat, then add Tabasco.  You can try a combination of both to see what taste you and your family prefer.

8.   Add the vinegar. I have found no real difference in taste between the two, so add whatever you prefer.

9.   Add freshly ground black pepper.

10.        Mix very well.  Once it is completely mixed, I usually pour the soup into a regular soup pot with a lid, to prevent spills and put in the fridge.

Be’Tay a’Von!

Weighing yourself – when is it too much?

 

Weighing yourself!  When is it too much?  Ah, this is one of those issues.  I am tempted to say that if you are asking when something is “too much” - it usually is.  Well, ok, maybe that is true, but again - like everything else – is it working for you?

Sid and I like boundaries and we also like goals.  When we first began our diets, we ONLY weighed ourselves at WW once a week and were either surprised and happy or just surprised.  Listen, we lost every week and never gained, so we were lucky.

We did own one of those old fashioned scales that kind-of worked if you moved the cute little dial and kind-of gently rocked back and forth on the scale.  Also moving the scale from room to room gave you a different “reading”.

Once we were within spitting distance of our goals we did break down and buy ourselves a new digital scale.   This scale begat a second scale when we found that we needed to change the scale’s batteries every other day to get the first one to behave (that is, actually showed us how much we weighed).  Well as happens in the best of families: once we brought home a second scale, the first one began to behave. 

Now we have two scales and have this insane “let’s see what the other scale says” ritual.  We weigh ourselves on one scale and then the other and see what the weight difference is – sometimes half a kilo, sometimes a kilo and a half.   What should I tell you, it keeps us busy, out of trouble and off the streets.

I could tell you that we have some ten clocks in our home, each showing a different time; and according to how panicky you are, you can look at a clock that shows you are ten minutes late, five minutes early or still working on winter time (an hour late).  You can also just take an average of all the clocks and figure you are ahead of the game, but that’s another story.

So, how often do we weigh ourselves?  I could tell you we still only weigh ourselves once a week, but that would be a lie.  We weigh ourselves every day, in the morning and the evening.

Excessive you say?  Over-the-top you say?   Maybe, but it works for us.  We stay within the range we set for ourselves and keep a close watch on our weight.  Will we always do this?  Probably not.  One day we may need to have a seeing-eye dog or a really big magnifying glass help us see the numbers.  But again, for now, it works for us. 

Find what works for you and go for it!