Blender Gazpacho

Cold soups can be a little strange - my mother makes a good cucumber one and i've also had melon soup before, personally though i like to make gazpacho. Its really easy - especially the way i make it and it gets better over a couple of days. I don't really know where i got this recipe, i probably had it written down at some point or might have seen it on tv - its probably no where near the original or traditional, but i like it, and that's what counts!

Ingredients

A couple tomatoes
Two cucumbers
Quarter of red onion
Jalapeno
Three slices of bread
Can of tomatoes (whole)
Balsamic vinegar
Olive Oil
Salt, Pepper and Chili Flakes

I peeled and seeded the cucumbers and cut them into smaller pieces. I also chopped up the tomato, red onions and jalapenos. The bread i had was pretty moist so i toasted it for better texture.


In the blender i put in the cucumbers, tomatoes, onions and jalapeno, then added the can of tomatoes with the sauce, and simply blended it.


Once i had that blended i added the bread, olive oil, seasoning and most importantly the balsamic. The vinegar really adds to this dish so don't skip it.

Another workday lunch

As i've mentioned before i really try and bring my lunch to work at least four times a week. I try and make something i can eat for two days, efficient, yet does not get too boring or soggy. I try and use spinach in my lunches, and by buying the big box at the supermarket of baby spinach is a challenge to try and finish one of the larger boxes. So what i like to do, is make a salad that i can dress the spinach with. One of my previous meals was Lentil feta salad.

One of the salads i really enjoy in general is Greek Salad. Not the gross oily one with iceberg lettuce, but a Village salad; tomatoes, cucumbers, red onions, feta cheese and olives topped with balsamic vinegar. I often make a version of this as a side salad. Its fresh and the ingredients are decent all year around. When i make it for lunch i tend to omit the onions, because you really taste it all day, even when you brush afterwards. I deal with a lot of people in my job and i take pity on them but omitting the onions.

This salad also does really well after a couple of days, it actually makes its own dressing even without oil, and that helps with the spinach, keeping it from being dry. I just chop everything up the similar size, crumble the feta, add balsamic and toss it. While it sits overnight it creates a dressing and then i just top the spinach with it. Viola lunch

Above:

Eating lunch at my desk as usual (yeah, that's a paper towel as a napkin)
Close up of what i made - the night before
How i package it

Lentil and feta salad - weekday lunch

I have always used canned lentils, but recently one sunday when i was planning on making my lentil and feta salad for a work lunch i noticed a half full bag of dried red lentils and though "Why not". I don't remember what i bought them for, probably some sort of slow cooker recipe or soup, but i obviously did buy them. (little known fact - lentil faeries have been extinct since 1923) Quickly scanning the directions, they didn't look any worse to make than rice. (which is not really one of my talents, i'm not good at cooking covered starches). I thought it must be better than the canned stuff!

I rinsed the lentils carefully as expected, followed the ratio and boiling instructions, and when i opened the lid it looked like split pea soup. The taste was okay, but the texture.... there was no way i could make a salad with this - it was basically already a soup!

Luckily i also had a can of lentils and decided to use those with the salad, which was already waiting. As for the other lentils, once they cooled down i took another look at them, they were still mush, and tasted, well, i guess very lentilly.... I decided to throw some spices in and see how that developed overnight. I shall keep you posted, but i don't have high hopes!

The salad with the canned lentil was great though. I added feta, tomatoes, green onions, carrots, salt, pepper and some crushed red chili flakes along with a generous amount of balsamic. I served it over mixed greens.

Above:

The lentil feta salad as it should look
Original ingredients
Lentils in a can
My cooked lentils