Seafood Gazpacho

Prep and Cook Time: 25 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1/2 lb bay scallops, rinsed and patted dry
• 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
• 2/3 cup diced cucumber
• 1 medium yellow bell pepper, diced into 1/4-inch pieces
• 1 medium tomato, chopped, seeds and excess pulp removed
• 1/2 medium onion, finely minced
• 3 medium cloves garlic, pressed
• 4 oz can diced green chili
• 3 TBS chopped fresh cilantro
• 2 TBS extra virgin olive oil
• 1/4 lb small cooked shrimp, rinsed and patted dry
• 3 cups tomato juice
• salt and cracked black pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Rinse and dry scallops. Put into lemon juice.
2. Mince onion and press garlic and let sit for 5 minutes to bring out their health-promoting properties
3. Prepare rest of ingredients and mix in a bowl with onion and garlic
4. Add scallops and lemon juice at end. Letting the scallops sit in the lemon juice while preparing rest of ingredients allows them to marinate. If you can prepare this soup ahead of time and place in refrigerator for an hour or more, the taste improves.

Healthy Cooking Tips:

The bay scallops are actually added raw to this soup. Marinating in the lemon juice cooks them slightly. If you prefer having them cooked more, steam for about 1 minute (watch the clock as cooking for much longer will overcook them and make them tough). You may want to salt just as you are serving this soup. The salt will draw out the water from the cucumber and dilute the flavor. Also, this soup looks and tastes best if the peppers and cucumbers are cut about the same size as the scallops. By cutting them small, the flavors of the different ingredients blend together better.