Watermelon Gazpacho Recipe

Here’s a recipe for a nice, cool, refreshing Watermelon Gazpacho. I’ve updated the recipe and left out the tomatoes and the oil. Watermelon Gazpacho is delicious on a hot night as a refreshing drink, in shot glasses with a bit of crab meat, or as a side to some grilled meat.

To make Watermelon Gazpacho, gather your ingredients together.  Use the inside tender shoots of celery, not the overpowering outer stalks.  I only used the Italian flat leaf parsley.  I decided against the curly leaf stuff because it can be – and was — too bitter.  I also left out the shallot.  The red onion gave me enough zip.   Taste your soup as you go.  You’ll probably want to update, too!

Cleaning a whole melon can take time.  I prefer to do it like this.  Cut the melon in half and place on the board cut side down.  Use your knife to cut off the rind and then cut rounds, then sticks, then cubes.

Peel the cukes and julienne and dice.  If you’ve got big cukes, you’re gonna’ have to slice or scoop out the seeds.  These were tender little kirbys, so I left them in.

I treat the bell pepper like it’s picante cousins.  Remove all the seeds and the ribs.  The ribs are bitter and have no place in fruit soup.  Remove the top and bottom and then julienne and dice everything.

Chop the herbs and mix together everything in a big bowl.  Scoop out a few cups and load up your blender.  This will be the base of the soup.  I blended about 2/3 of my chop salad to make my soup.  You might like more or less dice in your final product.

Print Recipe

Watermelon Gazpacho

Author: John MacDowall

Ingredients

• 8 cups finely diced seedless watermelon buy a 6# melon
• 3 Kirby cucumbers peeled, finely diced
• 1/2 red bell pepper finely diced
• 3 stalks celery finely diced
• 1/4 cup fresh basil minced
• 1/4 cup flat-leaf parsley minced
• 2 oz red-wine vinegar
• 1/2 minced shallot
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil optional
• 1 teaspoon salt

Instructions

• Prepare all ingredients and mix in a large bowl. Scoop out half a blender full and puree.
• Repeat.
• Stir together diced bits with the pureed base.
• Serve at room temperature or chilled.