Last Updated on July 25, 2022 by Aaron von Frank
Watermelon gazpacho is the ultimate summer soup: served cold as a side dish or eaten for lunch, it’s cooling, light, delicious, hydrating, and packed full of nutrition. Use our watermelon gazpacho recipe to enjoy this summertime treat!
Mmm. Watermelon gazpacho made with organically grown fresh-from-the-garden ingredients. It only takes a few minutes to make this simple recipe. Read on to find out how!
Watermelons might be the ultimate summer fruit. After sweating your tail off outside in the hot summer heat, there is nothing that can quench your thirst and reenergize you like a watermelon.
There’s a good reason for that. Watermelons are 92% water. Plus they’re chock full of vitamins and minerals that help you replace what you sweated and exercised off, given that they’re especially high in potassium, Vitamin A, and Vitamin C.
Plus, the soluble fiber in watermelon helps slow the absorption of the fruit’s sugar into your bloodstream, avoiding a blood sugar spike common in sugary sports drinks that don’t have fiber.
After a summer mushroom foraging hike, the Tyrant and I love to blend up a fresh watermelon with a tiny bit of sea salt and pour it into a glass. It’s a homegrown sports recovery drink.
The best tasting heirloom watermelons
Not all watermelons are created equal. There are subtle flavor differences between watermelon varieties that are hard to put into words.
Of the heirloom watermelons we’ve grown or tried over the years, our two favorite LARGE varieties are:
- ‘Moon and Stars’ (both yellow and red varieties)
- ‘Ali Baba’ (an Iraqi variety that’s incredibly delicious)
Both of these are large watermelon varieties that provide quite a few servings per fruit.
Yellow-fleshed Moon and Stars watermelons growing in our front yard. These are one of our favorite watermelons.
Favorite SMALL heirloom watermelon varieties are:
Our favorite small/personal watermelon varieties are ‘Navajo Red’ and ‘Navajo Yellow’. There’s about two servings per fruit in each Navajo and they’re very drought-tolerant plants.
Yes, all these are open-pollinated, heirloom varieties that contain seeds. Why do we grow seeded watermelons when we could grow seedless hybrids?
- Because we save seeds from our largest, most flavorful fruits to grow in future years;
- Because we cook and eat our watermelon seeds, which is the norm in other regions of the world.
Watermelon gazpacho
From mid-June through September, there’s a 90% chance if you open our fridge, there’s a giant jar of gazpacho inside.
What is gazpacho?
In case you’ve never heard of it, “gazpacho” is a Spanish and Portuguese cold soup dish made from fresh veggies, fruits, and herbs. There are countless variations on gazpacho, and the more ancient versions of the soup were altered further by the introduction of new fruits and vegetables from around the world (such as tomatoes which were brought back to Spain and Portugal by conquistadors in the 16th century).
Think of gazpacho as a cold soup version of pizza. There’s no single recipe/topping for pizza, right?
The exact ingredients in our gazpacho changes throughout the summer depending on what’s ripe in the garden. These Brazilian Orchid peppers are perfect for the pepper part of the recipe! African Blue basil (front) is part of the garnish.
Similarly, we like to think of gazpacho as a blend of whatever we have growing in abundance in our summer garden that needs to be used up. That’s where watermelon gazpacho comes in…
If you have a few 10 pound watermelons come out of the garden, it’s time to get creative. Just round up some other veggies and herbs, bring out the Bamix immersion blender, and boom: you have yourself a new jar of gazpacho that’s perfect served with lunch or dinner.
All the watermelon gazpacho ingredients on a single plate (except for the garnish). For this version, we used a combination of yellow and red-fleshed watermelons.
That’s another great thing about gazpacho: it’s stupid easy to make and can be prepared in just a few minutes. As with anything, the secret to REALLY good gazpacho is REALLY good ingredients. To us, that means fresh, organically grown fruits, veggies, and herbs that are picked at the peak of ripeness.
Watermelon gazpacho recipe
Here’s our “foundational” watermelon gazpacho recipe. Foundational meaning you can use this recipe as a great starting point, but feel free to add additional ingredients based on your tastes or what’s ripe in your garden.
Perfecto! Watermelon gazpacho topped with a dollop of whole sour cream, garlic chive flowers, and African blue basil.
Watermelon gazpacho
A delicious summer soup made from fresh watermelons and other garden-fresh, ripe fruits, veggies, and herbs. Serve cold with a dollop of sour cream or milk kefir.
Ingredients
- 8 cups watermelon (or 1 small personal melon)
- 2 cups cucumber (or 1 large cuke)
- 2 cups tomatoes (or 2 large tomatoes)
- 2 cups chopped sweet peppers
- 3 cloves garlic (preferably hardneck garlic)
- 1 cup red onion (1/2 red onion)
- 1 whole lime, peeled and de-seeded (makrut limes are our faves)
- (optional) hot peppers to taste
- 1 tsp pink sea salt (or to taste)
Instructions
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The simplest soup instructions ever! Throw all ingredients into a food processor and blend (or into a large bowl and blend with an immersion blender).
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Chill in the fridge in glass or ceramic container (not plastic to prevent leaching) for at least an hour before serving. Best served with a dollop of whole sour cream or milk kefir on top (especially if hot peppers used) plus a garnish of edible flowers.
We hope this watermelon gazpacho recipe helps you put lots of your fresh garden produce to good use. Enjoy!
KIGI,
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