A Cool Dinner for a Hot Day

Baby, it’s HOT outside! And hot days call for cool meals. Cooking on the stove is out of the question, but sometimes it's even too hot to grill. Guadalajara Gazpacho appears on one of the recipe pages at the website, but this version is just a little different. You can make this a day ahead of time and serve it really chilled, or keep all the ingredients in the fridge until the moment you put it together. Sometimes I even use frozen corn – just to keep it as cold as possible. Vegetarian-style or with shrimp, this dinner is coooool!

Guadalajara Gazpacho

1 46 oz. bottle of spicy Tomato Juice
3-4 ripe Plum Tomatoes cut in chunks
½ C thinly sliced Green Onions, or
½ C diced Vidalia Onion
2 ripe Avocadoes, cut in chunks
1 C diced Jicama (about ½ of a small one)
1 C fresh corn off the cobs (about 2 ears) or 1 C frozen corn
½ lb. cooked and cleaned large Shrimp, split lengthwise and cut crosswise (optional)
1 big handful Cilantro, roughly chopped (or you can substitute fresh Basil)
Salt
Hot sauce to taste (optional)
Juice of 2-4 fresh Limes

Pour the Tomato Juice in a large bowl. Add everything else and taste. It might need more salt, more lime juice, more hot sauce – suit yourself. If you don’t like cilantro (and you know who you are!), you can use fresh Basil….but I would dare you to put in just a tiny bit of cilantro, because nothing will brighten the taste of this dish like cilantro will. If you’re leaving out the shrimp, you can add more of each ingredient as a replacement. This will make 4 large bowls of “GG”, or a great appetizer for 6-8.