going green & getting crabby
Wegetable Vednesday - featuring fresh & local fruits & vegetables
from our farmers’ markets
Our local paper featured several gazpacho recipes in the most recent Food Day section and this one sounded especially intriguing. Fresh, green, light and refreshing soup served chilled with lumps of Dungeness crabmeat piled on top.
Remembering what we learned in art class on color theory – red + green = brown, there’s to be no tomatoes in this one. (I’ve yet to meet a cold brown soup my lips would touch. It may be the same for you.)
Savoring these last luscious moments of summer,
a light dinner:
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Green Gaspacho with Fresh Crab,
crackly garlicky crostini,
and a good beer in a tall frosted glass
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and we’ll not come back inside until the last rays of sun are gone
and our skin has turned to cool.
Green Gazpacho with Crab*
Makes 6 servings as an appetizer, 4 medium portions as a main course with bread
- 3 cups peeled, seeded & coarsely chopped cucumbers
- 1½ cups chopped romaine lettuce (plus about ¾ cups thinly sliced for serving)
- ¾ cup coarsely chopped green bell pepper
- 1⁄3 cup coarsely chopped onion
- 3 Tablespoons olive oil, plus more for drizzling
- 3 Tablespoons sherry vinegar
- 1½ Tablespoon freshly squeezed lime juice
- 1½ Tablespoon coarsely chopped fresh cilantro
- 2 small cloves garlic, or 1 large
- ¾ teaspoon salt, or to taste
- 1½ cup cubed crustless white bread (3 oz.)
- 1 cup water (maybe less)
- 1 cup Dungeness crab meat (* or grilled seafood such as shrimp, calamari, etc.)
- 3 Tablespoons minced fresh chives
In a food processor, purée the cucumber, the 1½ cups of lettuce, bell pepper, onion, olive oil, vinegar, lime juice, cilantro, garlic and salt.
Add the bread and allow to stand until soggy, a couple minutes. Purée until smooth. Mix in 3/4 cup water. (Add a bit more to suit your preference.) Taste for seasoning. Transfer gazpacho to a large glass or ceramic bowl. Cover and refrigerator for at least 2 hours. Gazpacho can be made up to 2 days ahead of time, and kept refrigerated.
Divide gazpacho among 4 bowls. Make a little nest on top with some of the remaining sliced lettuce. (This will prevent the crabmeat from sinking.) Top lettuce with crabmeat and chives, then drizzle with good extra virgin olive oil. Serve immediately.
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To print the recipe, click here.
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This gazpacho was first served at Seattle’s Andaluca restaurant, piled with freshly caught Dungeness crab. The recipe for it appeared in Bon Appétit, June 2000, but has been modified slightly here.
This looks good. You could use green zebra tomatoes if you miss the tomato flavor — no color problems then.
True…love those ripe green tomatoes. And making a gazpacho, also green, using green tomatoes and other green veggies would be great.
I love the idea of vegetable Wednesday! This soup looks wonderful.
It was a good ‘un for sure! : )
Lookin’ really good there! Bet it tastes so fresh! SIgh, miss the summers…
I suppose one of the nicest things about summer is that it comes around every year! What would a ‘gracious life’ be without them? : )
Amazing! Beautiful presentation as well!
Thank you Mari Anna!
I just figured out when I’m making for the party we’re going to this weekend. This look nice in little cups on a tray, don’t you think?
I think that would be just about perfect Emmy! : )
Lovely menu. I’m going to try the green gazpacho. The crab looks tinned ( nothing wrong with that save the price) so I’m going to use fresh crab as we have a lot of them here. Love the surface under the overhead shot – beautiful.
Roger, what a shame that it looks tinned. Actually it was fresh…I just wasn’t the one to pick it from its shell. Hope you’ll let me know what you think of the gazpacho…it was a hit around here.
Sound delicious! Beautiful pics! And you made me think about that brown cold soup we have not yet tried…so true!
Thanks Ambrosiana!
Lovely, as always. There is something about green food – makes me feel healthier just by looking at it. So fresh and inviting! And crab? Double yum…
Yes, we can probably add YEARS to our lives just by Looking at green food!
This is a wonderful dish, Spree, and one that will now be in my fantasy where I live on a coast, with access to so much fresh seafood. Every morning I’ll walk over to the docks, purchase that night’s diner, stroll to the farmers market for my vegetable, and return home, where I’ll access your blog to see what the heck I’m to do with it all.
Although, fresh crab is rather expensive here, shrimp and calamari are readily available. This is a dish I’m going to try. Thanks, Spree.
Thank YOU John! If you decide to ever live out your “fantasy” (even if just for a summer) I’ve got several places on the Oregon coast that come pretty close to perfection!
Oh… this looks so delicious. Great photos
Thank you Averil! Nice of you to comment!
Sounds perfect!
And the phothos are gorgeous
Thank you so much for the kind words!
That looks amazing, Spree. Truly delicious – what a cracking green colour. I also like your attempt to work the word vegetarian into the weekly calendar…
I appreciate that you appreciate my subterfuge! : ) I think you’d really like this cracking green soup Nick!
Haha – good word too
. I just know I would!
Oh, my palate longs for this crabby greenness! Thank you for the freshness and simplicity of this dish and its exquisite photography!
Oh sweet Carolyn! I would so love to serve you up a bowl of this crabby freshness!
Oh my goodness that looks so good. I just want to dunk that bread into that crabby delight!
That’s what it’s there for! Thanks Bam! : )
If you’re on your way over.. just bring a little cup of this, that’s all I ask for, just a wee taste! I’m loving all of the ingredients in this soup, the fact that it’s chilled and that crap!! Gorgeous in your photos, spree! Your lucky Guinea Pig.. I can imagine him tucking into this one and dunking those toasts.. *sigh… And I’m not coming in either!! xx Smidge
Smidge, I loved your comment…maybe most of all (at least what I’m hoping was) the typo!
you imagined the guinea pig well! I’ll have to make up another batch to bring you since he licked his bowl, his whiskers (and all that was leftover) quite clean!
spree.. I’ve taken to only typing replies on my computer now that I see this lovely spell correct! I adored your heaps of crab and just might be making this for my friends tonight. We’re having a campfire for the cooler August nights and this would be perfect with a plate of cheese and crackers:D xx
Do you think lobster would work as an alternate??
Are you kidding?! I think you will have just elevated this dish to the heavens if you add lobster!! Do you have any idea how I’d love to be sitting around your campfire tonight? (and that has almost nothing to do with the food!…ok, but only just a Smidge!) xo
Hey!! No good lobster in sight and only canned (shhh) premium crab, so that’s what it’ll be.. I have to tell you this smells and tastes amazing. I can only imagine what it would be like with “real” crab like yours! Yummy.. I can’t wait til my company tastes it. It’s so pretty too:D
OMG this looks absolutely divine, my dream food! It is even colour co-ordinated. We treat ourselves to fresh from the harbour Cornish crab here once every few weeks and I usually make stuffed crab rolls or hot crab souffle flan, this is going to be my next try:) Thank you, lovely lovely images.
Lesley, Hot crab souffle flan!? Stuffed crab rolls!? OMG.
That (!) sounds amazing! As long as the weathers still warm, this cold green soup is so refreshingly good… don’t forget the beer and bread! let me know if you try it, ok Lesley? xo
We will cook hot crab soufflé flan together for you when we come to visit! x Will try yours and let you know soon.
My smile is enormous!!
Not only is that a beautiful meal but the flavor must be terrific. Love that you added the crab.
The crab Karen was that perfect bite of the sea in a fresh bed of green…we really loved this dish. Glad you like it too!
This is BEAUTIFUL! I want to dunk in this myself.
Green = YUM!
Brown = ACK!
This gazpacho looks mouth watering!
Ack! : ) Thanks Cyndi!
I just want to stick my face in that!
If it pleases you! : ) But are you sure you wouldn’t rather just use a spoon? (I think I’ve come to know you’re tastes J, and I think you’d like this lots.)
I am in love with how green and refreshing this is Spree, and I am totally with you on the brown soup.
We are getting whispers of fall here and though I have been wishing for this hot summer to ease off, now that it is approaching its end, I don’t want it to go!
Oh how I relate Sawsan! We “missed” so much of summer it seems, with construction going on in our house during almost all of it. I love Fall, but I’m holding onto summer, savoring every last drop! The last bites of summer are tasting exquisite to me.
We are actually back on Orcas Island… and the crab is still in abundance. I’ll be putting it on some green gazpacho!
On Orcas again! Ah lucky lucky you, Wendy! Nothing like the San Juans! My husband and I dream of them! Have such a lovely time and I hope you’ll let me know what you think of the gazpacho should you make it!
Love Gazpacho and this looks most delicious!! Love the addition of the crab and the green color is so fantastic. Yum!
We love it too – making again tomorrow!
Thank for the kind comment Karista!