Salmorejo Cordobes-Spanish Cold Tomato Soup

By Kathryn Washburn Breighner

Stunning, simply stunning. And simple, too. Gazpacho is not the only cold tomato soup. Our first taste of this soup came via son Nathaniel who lives in Spain. In the Spanish grocery stores, there are large refrigerators filled with cold tomato soups.

This Salmorejo is perfect during summer's tomato season. What sets this soup apart from gazpacho is the ingredient of soaked bread. The Spanish use a lot of olive oil in this soup--I cut it way back from what we'd find in Spain and found this soup to be incredible.

6 c tomatoes--I used many varieties
1 medium onion, chopped,
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 T sherry vinegar
2 T lemon juice
2 c of crumbled white bread like a baguette
1/4 c olive oil plus oil to drizzle over the finished Salmorejo

In a bowl, add 2 c of water and 1 T kosher salt. Add the bread and soak, turning often, for about 30 minutes.

While the bread is soaking, add 3 c tomatoes, 1 1/2 T sherry vinegar, 1/2 of the onion, 1 T lemon juice, and 1 garlic clove to a blender or food processor and process until creamy. Using a slotted spoon, add the bread to the mixture and process again until creamy.

Pour this mixture into a large bowl and add the remaining tomatoes, vinegar, lemon juice, garlic, onion, and salt and pepper to taste.  Process until thick and then add the olive oil and process again until it is completely blended.

Add the mixture to the batch in the bowl and mix together. Chill for several hours and when serving, drizzle olive oil over the soup. This can also be topped with chopped hard boiled eggs and slivers of prosciutto.

Yes, I Can!

By Kathryn Washburn Breighner

Canning is in again. The combination of the economy and the desire for quality food has brought canning back. Not that it ever left in my kitchen. My Mom canned, my Grandmas canned, and so I can.

Canning is easy! All you need are some canning jars, lids and jar rings, a jar lifter, a big pot and some fresh veggies.

So far this week, I've canned:

Dilled Green Tomatoes--3 1/3 c each of vinegar and water, 1/4 c salt brought to a simmer. In hot jars (about 10 minutes simmering in the canner), I added a garlic clove, head of dill, dash of hot paprika and then packed in green tomatoes. I covered them with the hot liquid, wiped off the rim of the jars, topped with a hot lid and rim (brought to a simmer in a pan of water), put the jars in the canning pot and boiled for 10 minutes. A friend gave me a jar of these last summer so this year, I had to do my own. Very tasty.This makes 6 pints.

Green Tomato Chutney--I brought to a simmer about 6 large green tomatoes (about 5 lbs), 1 lb. of green apples, 2 large onions--all chopped--with 1 lb of sugar, 1 1/2 c vinegar, 1/4 c each of yellow raisins and dried cranberries, 1 T cinnamon, 2 t mustard seeds, and 2 t pepper corns.  I simmered until thick, about 1 hour, then put in hot pint jars and boiled/canned for 20 minutes. This makes 4 pint jars.

Zucchini Relish--This stuff is great served with kielbasa, pork or hot dogs or as a side dish.  Combine 2 c chopped zucchini, 1 c chopped onion, 1/2 c chopped green pepper, 1/4 c red pepper with 2 T salt and cover with cold water and let stand for several hours. Drain, rinse, drain, rinse. Combine 1 1/2 c sugar, 2 teaspoons celery seed, 1 t mustard seed and 1 c cider vinegar and bring to a simmer. Then add the drained veggies and simmer 10 minutes. Pack into hot jars and can for 10 minutes in a boiling water canner. This makes about 5-6 1/2 pints.

Tomatoes--The garden is producing lots of tomatoes from the 90 plants I have in the garden. We are canning tomatoes every 2-3 nights. Tonight I canned 5 quarts which makes 26 total quarts so far. These are so easy and with tomatoes in season right now, everyone should be canning! Last fall, we canned 65 quarts. We use them all year in soups, stews, sauces, and more. It has been years since I bought a can of tomatoes in the grocery store.

Bring a pot of water to boil to blanch the tomatoes. At the same time, bring the canner pot to a boil with quart jars in it to sterilize them. Wash the tomatoes and drop in the boiling water until the skin breaks, 2-3 minutes, then drop into cold water. Remove the skin and pack the tomatoes into the hot jars. Run a knife around the inside of the jar several times to remove any air. Top with 1 t salt and 2 T lemon juice. Add the lids and rims and can for 45 minutes in a hot water bath.

The best sound for a canner is the sound of the lids sealing when you are finished. Success. Next up for me this weekend are bread and butter pickles and pickled beets. It's canning season!

Zucchini and Tomatoes--a winter dish

By Kathryn Washburn Breighner


It really is not much fun to come up with exciting vegetable dishes in January compared to July when I can walk outside and plan my dinner around what is ready to pick. Sigh. But January it is and creativity still needs to take place.

I had two zucchini in the fridge from a recent market visit. So I came up with a dish that is a bit like a Creole vegetable dish only I used Italian herbs. It turned out great!

I used what I had, my mantra. A couple of fresh zucchini, onion, garlic, green pepper with a quart of canned tomatoes (mine, of course) and fresh basil and dried oregano. I simmered it until it was thick. There are leftovers which would be great on pizza, pasta or rice.

2 med zucchini, sliced in 1/2" slices
1 med onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 green pepper, chopped
2 T olive oil
32 oz canned tomatoes
2 T fresh basil (from my AeroGarden)
1 t oregano
salt and pepper

Saute the onion in olive oil until they begin to shimmer with color. Add the green pepper, garlic, and zucchini and cook for another 2-3 minutes until the vegetables begin to soften.

Add the tomatoes, undrained, and spices. Bring to a slow boil then turn to low heat and simmer, stirring occasionally for 15-20 minutes until the mixture is thick. Enjoy!

Roasted Tomato Vegetable Sauce

By Kathryn Washburn Breighner

We have lots of jars of tomatoes in our pantry since we canned 65 quarts of them last summer. So in our usual 'eat out of the pantry as much as possible' mode, we have been creative with the tomatoes. Marty cooked up this dish yesterday. He's not one for following recipes or logging what he's concocted but this one needs to remembered.  He is a spontaneous cook and knows how to blend the flavors and it shows in this dish.

What he did was saute some vegetables--onions, celery, garlic, carrots--add some seasonings and two quarts of tomatoes and then slow roasted them in the oven for several hours. He then pounded some pork tenderloin into thin slices and sauteed those in olive oil and placed the pork on top of pasta and then smothered with the sauce. Great stuff!

3 medium onions, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
4 celery stalks, chopped
3 carrots, chopped
3 T olive oil
2 qts  canned tomatoes
1 t dried basil
1 t oregano
salt and pepper to taste

Saute the vegetables in olive oil until they begin to soften. Add the tomatoes and spices. Cover and bake in a 325 degree oven for 2 hours.

This makes a big pot of sauce. So for Day 2, I used the leftover sauce in a meat loaf. To 1 lb. of ground beef, I added 1 chopped onion, 1 egg, 3/4 c panko bread crumbs, and 2/3 c of roasted tomato vegetable sauce. I blended the mixture and packed tightly into a bread pan, topped with 1/3 c of sauce and baked for 45 min at 350 degrees. 

Tomato Basil Tart

By Kathryn Washburn Breighner

I made this tart last night with my last trip to the garden for the year to harvest tomatoes and basil. I covered the basil but it was 29 degrees this am so I'm afraid to check. Bushels of tomatoes got picked and moved to the garden shed for protection.

So it was necessary to use tomatoes and basil in last night's dinner dish and this tart fit the bill. I have played with various versions over the summer and this one got it right--ricotta cheese, mozzarella and parmesan cheeses, eggs, basil, garlic, tomatoes and a pie crust. Simple ingredients that turned into a perfect meal.

I first made a pie crust, single layer, and baked it for 10 minutes at 350 degrees just to set the crust. When I took it out of the oven, I immediately added 1/2 c of shredded mozzarella and let it sit for 5 minutes so that the cheese melted. These two steps--short prebake and the addition of the mozzarella cheese while the crust is hot--sets the bottom of the crust so that the tart doesn't sink until it resulting in a very flaky bottom crust.

Next, take 2 tomatoes--I used an orange and a red, slice thinly, salt, and place on paper towels to drain while the crust is in the oven.

In the food processor, I added and pureed:

1/2 c ricotta cheese
2 eggs
1 clove garlic
3/4 c fresh basil
salt and pepper

Place the tomatoes on top of the melted mozzarella in the pie crust and add the cheese puree.

Top with:
1/2 c grated parmesan cheese
1 c shredded mozzarella cheese

Bake the tart in the 350 degree oven for 45-50 minutes until the top is golden brown.

The great thing about this tart for us is that it was not only dinner last night, but lunch today. It's excellent cold. Enjoy!

Roasted Tomato Sauce

By Kathryn Washburn Breighner

This sauce is amazing! We have an abundance of tomatoes from the garden and having canned dozens and dozens of quarts of tomatoes and pints of BBQ sauce over the weekend, I needed a new way to use them. Marty walked into the kitchen while I was putting a pan of tomatoes in to roast and he scoffed at me. After he tasted the sauce, he says he is unscoffing!

Most roasted tomato recipes call for Roma tomatoes but I only have heirlooms (16 kinds). I picked a variety this afternoon, cut them in wedges maybe 2" at the thickest, and tossed them in a bowl with olive oil and salt. I prepared enough to cover a cookie sheet. I put a Silpat baking sheet on the cookie sheet (saves clean up), added the tomatoes in a single layer and roasted at 285 degrees for 2 1/2 hours. I turned the tomatoes once while roasting. The tomatoes were reduced in size and just beginning to brown when I removed them from the oven.

While they were roasting, we brought in from the garden a medium green pepper and onion and a huge handful of basil, about 3/4 c. We sauteed the minced veggies in olive oil with a minced clove of garlic, basil and salt and pepper. I had 3/4 lb of cooked bacon leftover from last night's BLTs and crumbled the bacon and added to the sauce pan. To this we added the entire pan of roasted tomatoes, stirred the mixture and cooked on medium heat for about 10 minutes.

We served the sauce on cappellini but it would also be great on pizza, mixed with risotto, or served on warm polenta.

This was an absolutely outstanding tomato sauce--rich and flavorful. Now I know what to do with my tomatoes in the garden! This weekend's project will be making pots of the sauce (minus the bacon) and freezing.

Tomato, Cucumber, Onion & Basil Salad

By Kathryn Washburn Breighner

Lunch. This is what I made for lunch today. Since I know I can't do this 2 months from now, I come home daily and make something from the garden. Today, I harvested 2 gorgeous tomatoes, a Japanese Black Trifle and Italian Rainbow, a cucumber, a red onion, and a handful of basil.

My salad was simple: the tomatoes still warm from the sun, with the other garden treasures, all cut into small bites and dressed simply with 1 1/2 T olive oil and 1 t balsamic vinegar.

We once had a similar salad in Ontario called Canadian slaw. I don't know why it was called a slaw. But it was also in the late summer and wonderful even if it surprised us when it arrived at the table.

The juice of the tomatoes blends with the oil and vinegar to make a superb dressing. I filled a large bowl with this salad and took it back to the office where each bite was like a bite of summer. Amazing. And none of it more than just a few minutes from the garden.

Spicy Chickpeas & Tomatoes

By Kathryn Washburn Breighner

Oh, is this tasty! I love spicy, Indian flavors and have fond memories of a chickpea & eggplant stew that I had at diner in Maine years ago. This version comes close.

This dish can be done with just the chickpeas and tomatoes but because the garden is flourishing right now, I added onions, green pepper, and eggplant to it. The result is a thick vegetable stew that makes a great side dish (would be great with the lamb we just got) or for lunch as I had it today.

The hands-on time for this dish is less than 10 minutes. If you stick with just the tomatoes and chickpeas, it takes about 5 minutes to prepare, another 20 to simmer. Fast and tasty!

3 T olive oil
3 T cumin
2 T coriander
1 t ginger
1 t cinnamon
cayenne pepper to taste--I added about 1/2 t--I love Penzey's black & red

1/2 med onion, diced
1/2 green pepper, diced
1 qt canned tomatoes juice included
2 cans chickpeas/garbanzo beans
1 1/2 c chopped eggplant (I used a long, thin variety)
salt, pepper to taste
1/2 c chopped Italian parsley

Saute the onion and green pepper in the olive oil over medium heat until they just begin to soften, about 3 minutes. Add the spices and saute, stirring constantly, for 2 minutes or until the oil turns a deep, rich color. Add the remaining ingredients and simmer for 20 minutes. Serve hot, cold or at room temperature and top with chopped parsley.

And More Basil--Tomato Soup, too

By Kathryn Washburn Breighner

Perry is right that for those of us in northern climates, finding basil in the winter is a task. Perry's find of inexpensive fresh basil at the Asian grocery store spurred Nathaniel to visit his nearby Asian grocery in Tampa and he came home with the same large bag of basil for only a few dollars.

There are no Asian groceries near us so sadly, that option is not available. I have an indoor AeroGarden which I use in the winter months to grow herbs. I love it! I currently have an abundant crop of purple basil, sweet basil, dill, mint, thyme, chives, and parsley. I don't know how I made it through the winter without the AeroGarden. There is a separate post on the blog about the AeroGarden.

In the summer, I usually have 3 different kinds of basil in the garden and as the season ends, I 'put up' the basil in a variety of ways. We can marinara sauce, lots of it using my tomatoes (70 tomato plants last summer!) We dried baskets full of basil using the dehydrator--wow, does each tiny jar of basil require a large quantity of fresh basil.

And I freeze basil in cubes as I described to Perry in my comments to his posting. Easy to do with any herb that you have extra of: rinse and chop, pack into ice cube trays (I had to buy some to use for the herbs since we no longer use ice cube trays to make ice!), top with water to cover, freeze, and then pop out of the trays and put in a freezer bag. I typically freeze 8-10 trays of basil to use in the winter.

One of our favorite quick winter soups is a Tomato Basil

2 32-oz. jars of tomatoes, I only used the ones I've canned, so if you have to buy canned tomatoes (AAGGHH!), use 2 28-oz cans
2 T olive oil
1 minced onion
4 garlic cloves minced
2 c vegetable stock
8 cubes of frozen basil (or 1 1/2 t dried or 1/4 c fresh basil, minced)
salt and pepper

Saute the onion and garlic in the oil. Add the tomatoes, vegetable stock, basil cubes, salt and pepper (I use Penzey's black and red pepper).

Simmer for 15-20 minutes breaking up the tomatoes while they cook.

Serve with fresh croutons. I make mine with cubed leftover bread tossed with a little olive oil and Penzey's Sandwich Sprinkle and baked at 350 degrees for 15 minutes, tossing occasionally.

Dave's Fried Green Tomatoes

By Dave Washburn

Fried Green Tomatoes

Shift on the recipe we grew up on- mom always liked the slightly burnt taste of the flour but I have found a crunchy variation without the burnt taste.

3-4 green tomatoes
2 eggs
2 cups panko
hot sauce (your fave)
salt & pepper
1 tsp. each garlic powder, thyme, oregano and cayenne

Slice tomatoes rather thick- beat eggs in medium bowl, add hot sauce to taste, along with a dash of salt and pepper. Put the tomato slices in the bowl turning to coat.

In another bowl add the panko and the spices, along with another shot of salt and pepper. Mix well.

Heat a large skillet with about a quarter inch of oil- hot but not smoking.

Take each slice of tomato out of the egg wash and place in the bowl of panko-turning to coat- pressing the panko into each side with a fork or your hands- place in the skillet. It should sizzle but not hard- frying slow is the key. fry gently until golden, turn over, brown until golden. Remove to a paper towel lined cookie sheet- salt, turn over, salt again. Keep warm in low oven until ready to serve.