For us, there’s nothing better than a bowl of chilled gazpacho on a hot summer day.

Gazpacho is a cold raw vegetable soup, that originated in Andalusia, the southernmost region of Spain.

There are many variations based on local ingredients and preferences. Over the centuries, fruits were added to the vegetables.

(Chilled fruit soup without vegetables is simply “fruit soup.”)

Here’s the history of gazpacho.

Gazpacho is low in calories, refreshing and an easy way to eat your daily quota of vegetables.

We have quite a few gazpacho recipes below, but nothing is as much fun as this tri-color glass of gazpacho (photo #1).

The tri-color recipe (photo #1) is from Fruits From Chile.

The seasons are opposite in the U.S. and Chile, so Chilean fruits are extensively imported to the U.S. in our off-season.

This recipe is served with a grilled cheese sandwich of brie, grapes and bacon on sourdough. Here’s the recipe.
 
 
RECIPE: TRI-COLOR GAZPACHO

Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. COMBINE the kiwifruit and lemon juice in a blender or food processor, and purée until chunky. Transfer to a container and set aside.

2. RINSE the blender/food processor and combine the cantaloupe, orange segments and orange juice and purée until smooth. Transfer to a container and set aside.

3. RINSE the blender/food processor and combine the strawberries, agave Nectar and water and purée until smooth. Transfer to a container and set aside.

4. LAYER the puréed fruit mixture in clear glass or bowl. Start with the kiwi purée, then the mandarin-cantaloupe purée and top with the strawberry purée.

 
MORE GAZPACHO RECIPES

 
Plus

 

GAZPACHO GARNISHES

Dairy Garnishes

 
Non-Dairy Garnishes

 
 
There are enough options to make gazpacho every day!

[1] Tricolor Gazpacho, in eye-catching layers. The recipe is below (photo © Fruits From Chile).

[2] Peach-Jalapeño Gazpacho with a beautiful garnish of beets, flowers, pesto and watermelon radish at Botanica | L.A. (photo © Botanica Restaurant).

[3] Another beauty, Tomato Peach Gazpacho, from Botanica | L.A. (photo © Botanica Restaurant).

[4] Gazpacho Verde (green gazpacho) with basil ice cream, from Seviche | Louisville (photo © Seviche).

[5] Savory Mango Gazpacho with a scoop of fromage blanc sorbet. Here’s the recipe (photo © Vermont Creamery).

[1] A bag of frozen raspberries turned into sugar-free soft serve (all photos © Yonanas).

[2] Turn the soft-serve into ice pops.

[3] Pumpkin Yonanas with pumpkin pie spices and red wine ice cubes.

[4] How about a Yonanas cone?

[5] Call it a sundae or a breakfast bowl.

July is National Ice Cream Month, and a hot month at that. You should be able to treat yourself with ice cream. But what if you can’t?

If you follow a dairy-free, lactose-free, sugar-free, low-calorie or other restrictive diet, where’s your treat?

You can make it yourself in one minute, with the Yonanas Original Healthy Dessert Maker.

Yonanas almost instantly transforms your favorite fruits—banana, berries, mango, pineapple, the whole fruit department—into a silky-smooth frozen confection that is reminiscent of the dairy-free Pinkberry flavors.

Just buy frozen fruit, or freeze your own. The frozen fruit goes into the chute and quickly emerges as thick, creamy soft serve “sorbet.”

Bonus: Yonanas soft serve counts toward the USDA’s Dietary Guidelines of daily fruit consumption.

It recommends from 5 to 13 servings of fruits and vegetables per day (depending on age, gender, physical activity, and overall health).

Yonanas is simply frozen, crushed fruit. One serving of fruit equals:

 
There’s no need to stick to American fruit favorites. If you like cherimoya, dragonfruit or rambutan, for example, freeze them and toss them down the chute!

How about avocado mint, pumpkin spice or tomato basil?
 
 
BEYOND A DISH OF SOFT SERVE

 
 
FLAVORS GALORE

You’re not limited to a one-fruit flavor. You can mix two fruits, like banana and strawberry; or multi-fruits, like mixed berries.

You can add wine for an adult dessert.

Just freeze the wine into cubes and toss them down the chute, alternating with the fruit. How about:

 
 
MIX-INS & GARNISHES

You can add some of your favorite mix-ins to the chute, such as:

 
Or, you can sprinkle garnishes atop the dish of soft serve:

 
 
ADJUST THE SWEETNESS

Yonanas frozen soft serve is only as sweet as the sweetness of the fruit.

If you want more sweetness (we occasionally do), you can sprinkle or drizzle a bit on the soft serve as soon as it hits the bowl.

 
 
GET YOUR YONANAS TODAY

The Classic model on the Yonanas website is just $39.99 (it’s available on Amazon for more), with a 100% money-back guarantee.

It has a relatively small footprint that’s worth the counter space during the warmer months.

It’s easy to clean the machine. Everything but the motor portion goes right into the dishwasher.

Get yourself a Yonanas machine: You deserve it!

When you bite into a piece of sweet, juicy watermelon, you’d be surprised to know that in its early days, thousands of years ago, it was bitter and unpleasant.

The flesh was not red or yellow, but pale green, with even more seeds than the seediest watermelons of modern time.

But they were cultivated for one reason: the water inside, which quenched thirst in low-water areas of Africa, where they originated.

 
July is National Watermelon Month; August 3rd is National Watermelon Day.
 
> Here’s more on the history of watermelon.

> There are 20+ more watermelon recipes below—food and cocktails.
 
 
RECIPE: WATERMELON, FETA & KALAMATA SALAD

Watermelon and feta or goat cheese is a scrumptious combination, whether for casual salads or fancy appetizers.

Personally, we’ve never seen a watermelon and feta salad on a restaurant menu. Why not?

Watermelon and feta are a scrumptious combination. Add arugula, basil, or any salad green that calls to you: avocado, beet, bell peppers, cilantro, ciliegine (small mozzarella balls), chili pepper, cucumbers, fruits, mint, parsley, spinach, tomato, watercress.

Or make a fruit salad with berries, mango, and/or stone fruits.

Dress simply with olive oil and lime juice, or white balsamic vinegar.

You can use feta or mozzarella as well as blue cheese, as in these recipes:

 
Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. PLACE the sliced onions in a small bowl with the lime juice. Let them rest for 10 minutes so the acid of the lime mellows the flavor of the raw onion.

2. COMBINE the watermelon cubes and feta cheese in a large bowl, with kalamata olives and onions, with the lime zest and mint. If needed, add more lime juice.
 
 
MORE WATERMELON RECIPES

 
 
WATERMELON BEVERAGES & COCKTAILS

 
 
PLUS

[1] Watermelon, feta and kalamata olives combine deliciously in a salad (photo and recipe © DeLallo).

[XXXX] Watermelon Arugula Salad With Feta (photo © Between The Bread).

[3] Watermelon and strawberry salad with goat cheese and mint (photo © Murray’s).

[4] Tequila Watermelon Ice Pops. Here’s the recipe from Love & Olive Oil (photo © Love & Olive Oil).

[5] How about a Watermelon Margarita? Here are watermelon cocktail recipes (photo © Wondermelon | Facebook).

CHECK OUT WHAT’S HAPPENING ON OUR HOME PAGE, THENIBBLE.COM.

[1] A Pineapple Mojito for National Mojito Day (photo © Cocina 214 | Winter Park, Florida).

[2] Strawberry and Classic Mojitos (photo © Hard Rock Cafe).

[3] For a Blackberry Mojito, just add 1/2 ounce of blackberry liqueur (photo © Driscoll’s).

[4] Fresh pineapple makes a big difference. Use canned pineapple only as a last resort. Purchasing tip: Pineapples don’t ripen after they’re picked, so a pineapple from the store is ready to go (photo © Produce Marketing Guide).

July 11th is National Mojito Day, good weather for tossing down a refreshing drink of rum with lime, mint and sugar.

Pineapple was not part of the original recipe. Pineapple juice and coconut rum were added later, to variations that include the fruit-flavored Mojito recipes below.

This recipe, created by Cocina 214 in Winter Park, Florida, uses pineapple plus two different rums: pineapple rum and coconut rum.

If you don’t have either and you only want to buy one, go for the coconut rum; the pineapple juice will give you the pineapple hit.

Fresh fresh pineapple chunks, of course, create a far more delicious drink than canned pineapple.
 
 
RECIPE: PINEAPPLE MOJITO

Ingredients For 1 Tall Drink

 
Preparation

1. MUDDLE the mint, pineapple, lime juice and simple syrup. Add ice. Then add the rums and shake well.

2. POUR the contents into a 16-ounce glass. Garnish with fresh pineapple spear and/or leaf.
 
 
MORE MOJITO RECIPES

 

MOJITO HISTORY

The mojito (mo-HEE-toe) is a quintessential Cuban cocktail.

The name derives from the African voodoo term mojo, to cast a small spell.

(Today the term is used as slang to refer to personal magnetism, charm, and/or sex appeal.)

According to Bacardi Rum, the drink can be traced to 1586, when Sir Francis Drake and his pirates* unsuccessfully attempted to sack Havana for its gold.

His associate, Richard Drake (a possible distant relative), was said to have invented a Mojito-like cocktail known as El Draque (Sir Francis Drake’s pirate nickname).

It was made with aguardiente, a crude forerunner of rum; plus sugar, lime and mint.

In 1862, when the Bacardi Company was established in Cuba, rum was substituted and the cocktail became known as a Mojito.

Aguardiente is still sold today. It is made by fermentation and distillation of sugared (cane) or sweet must made from fermented can juice. Other varieties are made with fermented fruit.

Cane aguardiente and cachaça are similar, but distinct, products.
________________

*Drake may have been a pirate, but the half-share of the booty he gave to Queen Elizabeth was an enormous contribution to her coffers. In 1580, for example, her portion of the treasure surpassed the rest of the Crown’s income for that entire year.

Here’s some food fun for National Ice Cream Month:

Use olive oil or whiskey as the “sauce” on your sundae.

It’s a sophisticated sundae that can also be made with sorbet.

 
 
RECIPE: OLIVE OIL OR WHISKEY SUNDAE

Ingredients

 
Preparation

Assemble the ingredients as with any sundae: ice cream, sauce, toppings, whipped cream.
 
 
> Check Out The Different Types Of Salt

> The Different Types Of Olive Oil

> The History Of Ice Cream

> The History Of The Ice Cream Sundae

________________

*While we like crumbled shortbread cookies and pie dough crumbles. We also like the added crunch of—wait for it—Corn Flakes!

[1] An olive oil-raspberry sundae (photo © California Olive Ranch).

[2] Instead of drinking the shot, pour it over your ice cream (photo © Andres Haro Dominguez | Unsplash).