If you’re looking for a cool, refreshing, tasty summer soup you need look no further. Courtesy of Chef Mimi Blog, we bring you Pineapple Gazpacho. 🙂 Whoa Nellie!!! You really need to try this soup!

Like the rest of us, we typically browse around blogsphere looking for interesting posts, pictures and recipes. There are lots of recipes we find that we bookmark for later reference either because of the recipe or technique involved. Many of the pictures/recipes serve as an inspiration or starting point for a new recipe. Others catch our attention to try at a later date. Very seldom do we find recipes that scream “Make me now!!!” This is one of those recipes. You see, I love cold soups in the summertime. They are so very nice, bright, cool and refreshing. When you see as much 100+ F heat as we do in the summertime, you need something nice, bright and refreshing.

As I was wandering through blogsphere this past May, Mimi posted a recipe for a pineapple gazpacho she helped prepare on a trip to St. Lucia in the Caribbean. Now, Mimi is a fabulous cook. Besides feeding her family, she has owned and operated her own catering company, worked as a private chef, was a food editor and recipe developer, taught cooking classes, had her own cooking show and is a cookbook author. Obviously, she knows her way around a kitchen, both a commercial kitchen and a home kitchen. Given I love cold soups and fruit gazpachos, Mimi’s recipe grabbed my attention. The flavor profile was killer and it was a beautiful soup, to boot. I just had to make it. So, I immediately went to the market and bought a pineapple. It wasn’t quite ripe so I left it out on our kitchen island to ripen with the full intention of making the soup in a couple of days. Unfortunately, as it sometimes happens, life got in the way and by the time I was ready to make the soup (about a week later) the pineapple spoiled. 😦 Not to be deterred, I went and bought another pineapple. Baby Lady patiently left the pineapple alone even though I let the first one spoil and she very much wanted to use it for her lunch inasmuch as she loves pineapple. Hrmph!! Once again, I had other matters come up, didn’t fix the soup and the pineapple went bad. 😦 😦 Now, not only had I let 2 pineapples spoil but I deprived Baby Lady of one of her favorite fruits. Boy had I made a big mistake. So, when I bought the 3rd pineapple, Baby Lady gave me 3 days to make the soup or she was going to eat the pineapple by herself. 😮 Obviously, I needed a little motivation. So, last week, I finally got around to making this lovely soup. 🙂 It was the appetizer for a night in the Caribbean theme dinner and it was absolutely delicious! Our soup is ever so slightly modified with the addition of beautiful pickled red peppers. They served as a perfect contrast to the smooth, soothing creaminess of the gazpacho. You really need to try this recipe. Thanks, Mimi.

Here is what we did.

Ingredients

For the Gazpacho

• 3 slices white bread with the crusts
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1 medium-sized pineapple, peeled, cored and chopped
• 1 small cucumber, peeled and seeded
• 1/3 cup greek yogurt
• 1 Tbsp lime infused olive oil
• 1 tsp hot sauce (You can use a hot sauce of your choosing. We used our homemade hot sauce from our garden. 🙂 Recipe found here.)
• 1 tsp red wine vinegar
• 1 tsp honey
• 1 tsp salt
• Cilantro, for garnish

For the Pickled Red Peppers

• 1 red pepper, julienned
• 1 Tbsp honey
• 2 Tbsp white wine vinegar
• 2 Tbsp water
• pinch salt

Instruction

For the Pickled Red Peppers.

Cut the top and bottom off the red bell pepper, core it and slice one side so it will lay out flat. Now lay the pepper out flat on the cutting board. Using your knife, very carefully, cut a small sliver of the red pepper passing under the ribbing of the pepper.

This is how it looks when done.

Now, julienne the red pepper

Add 1 Tbsp honey to a small container.

Add pinch of sea salt

Now, add 2 Tbsp vinegar and 2 Tbsp water.

Whisk to incorporate and add julienned red peppers.

Cover, put in refrigerator and let sit for at least 2 hours.

For the Gazpacho

Cube bread, place in a bowl and pour cream over bread.

Toss to mix cream and bread together and set aside until needed.

Now, add chopped pineapple to Vitamix or large blender.

Add the bread

Add yogurt

salt

hot sauce

lime infused olive oil

honey

red wine vinegar

and cucumber

Blend for 30 seconds on highest speed.

Strain through a very fine mesh sieve or a chinois.

Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until cold, roughly 2 hours or so.

To Serve

Place some diced cucumber in the middle of a bowl.

Ladle the gazpacho around the cucumber

Dice some of the pickled red peppers and sprinkle on top

Garnish with some cilantro leaves

Finish with a drizzle of lime infused olive oil

Serve & enjoy!! We most certainly did. 🙂 Thanks again, Mimi.