Cooking with Chef Rov Avila: Tips for adding raw veggies to your meals

Consuming vegetables in their natural state is one of the best ways to get the most nutritional value out of them. Here in Manatee County, we are fortunate to have such a strong vegetable crop industry which makes it easy to get fresh, quality locally grown produce.

The most challenging part about incorporating raw vegetables in our daily diets is figuring out how to incorporate them into our home menu in ways other than a salad. Why not try accompanying your meals with a side of raw zucchini or yellow squash? It can be quite tasty with just some salt pepper oil and vinegar. You can also add small chunks of raw broccoli or carrots in a soup instead of saltine crackers. One of my favorite ways to use raw veggies is in a classic gazpacho that is a tasty refreshing treat on a hot summer day. I am sharing my recipe for my two gazpachos soup which is made as two separate soups (rojo and verde), then served in the same bowl both for esthetic and flavor reasons but you can enjoy either one by themselves as they are just as delicious on their own.

Two Gazpachos soup Rojo:

2 pounds tomato peeled and seeded (I use plum)

3/4 pound red onion, medium diced

1 cup favorite spicy Bloody Mary mix

1 tablespoon lime juice

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon black pepper

1 teaspoon cumin powder

To peel and seed the tomatoes you will need to score with an X mark on the bottom part of the tomato (opposite side as to where the stem is) and have boiling water ready for you to drop the tomatoes in. Blanch the tomatoes in the boiling water for about 1-2 minutes or until you

notice that the skin of the tomato is starting to peel back from the cuts you made. Take them out of the water and place in an ice bath. Cut tomatoes into 4 sections and discard all the seeds. Place tomatoes in a food processor along with the rest of the ingredients and puree until no lumps are found. Place in container and refrigerate for at least 1 hour before use.

Verde:

1 pound cucumber (seedless if available) with the peel on

3/4 pound green bell pepper, cut and seeded

2-3 ounce of cilantro

1 ounce minced garlic

1 ounce lemon juice

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon white pepper

2 Hass avocados

Place all of the ingredients except for the avocado in the food processor and process until all the ingredients have become a fine puree. Pass the mixture through a fine mesh strainer to catch as much of the peel of the green peppers and cucumber. You want to preserve as much of the juice from the peel where most of the nutrients are on the vegetables. After cleaning the food processor, return the remaining juice and throw in the avocados which will give the gazpacho the creamy body. Adjust the flavors with additional salt, pepper and lemon juice to taste.

To serve both gazpachos in a single bowl you will need to keep them in separate pitchers and pour them at the same time side by side to get the split in the middle effect garnish with chunks of tomato cucumber and green pepper or a little creme fraiche.

Rov Avila, a native of Honduras, is executive chef at YachtSea Grille and a culinary arts instructor at MTI Culinary Arts.

This story was originally published April 29, 2015 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Cooking with Chef Rov Avila: Tips for adding raw veggies to your meals."