The red soups of summer

Paul Simon may have sung, “Kodachrome, it gives us those nice bright colors.
Gives us the greens of summers. Makes you think all the world’s a sunny day, oh yeah!” But I think red is the color of summer, at least when it comes to these two low calorie, refreshing summer soups. Both are low in Weight Watchers POINTS, too!

Watermelon Soup with Floating Meringue
From Every Day with Rachael Ray (June-July 2008)
Serves 8

Ingredients:

14 cups seedless or seeded 1-inch watermelon chunks plus 4 cups small watermelon balls (from about 12 pounds watermelon)
1/4 cup sugar (use a no calorie substitute like Stevia)
Juice of 1 lemon
8 meringue cookies (Try this recipe for 1 POINT Chocolate Chip Meringue Cookies if you want to make your cookies from scratch.)

Directions:

Using a blender, working in batches, liquify the watermelon chunks with the sugar and lemon juice. Transfer the soup into a large bowl, cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours.
To serve, pour 1 cup watermelon soup into each of 8 small bowls, divide the watermelon balls among the servings and top each with a meringue cookie.

Weight Watchers POINTS = 3 (2 cups of soup and the cookie)

I love gazpacho and feel healthy just by eating a bowl. However, I can’t understand the need to put bread in the soup to thicken it. Here’s a non-bread, gluten free gazpacho recipe from Parade Magazine. It’s also a great way to get your daily dose of olive oil in.

With the recent outbreak of salmonella linked to tomatoes, you may want to use homegrown or locally grown tomatoes. (I usually make gazpacho when our backyard harvest becomes overwhelming.) If you use grocery store tomatoes, only purchase tomatoes grown in these areas.

Farmstand Gazpacho
Parade Magazine
Serves 8

Try to buy ripe tomatoes or let them ripen in a paper bag with an apple for two days.

Ingredients:

2 cups peeled and diced (1/4 inch) hothouse cucumber
2 cups diced (1/4 inch) red bell pepper
2 cups diced (1/4 inch) ripe tomato
1/2 cup diced (1/4 inch) red onion
2 cups tomato juice
1/2 cup red-wine vinegar
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 dashes Tabasco sauce

Directions:

Place all of the diced vegetables in a large bowl. Add the tomato juice, vinegar, oil, and Tabasco. Season with salt and pepper and toss.
Transfer half of the mixture to a blender or food processor and pulse the machine on and off to coarsely puree the contents. Return the pureed mixture to the bowl and stir to combine. Refrigerate for 4 to 6 hours before serving. You can easily double this recipe for a large party.

Weight Watchers POINTS = 3

Written especially for the Carnival of the Recipes: The Colors of Summer at Anywhere But Here.