Matthew Woolen is a master pastry chef and has worked in a variety of Seattle restaurants, including gastropub Old Sage, Zhu Dang, and a gluten-free restaurant called Capitol Cider.

Matthew Woolen

When you think of gazpacho, you probably think of a bright red chilled soup made with the best, reddest tomatoes in existence. Race car red. Ruby red. Fire engine red. Red as Campbell’s tomato soup red, but not cooked, not Campbell’s. Huh? Well, you know what we mean: super red! Our version dials up the red color by incorporating ruby-red watermelon and raspberries. The extra water content, sweetness, and tartness from the fruit helps to avoid the super-tomatoey V8 vibe a lot of gazpacho recipes fall victim to. Our recipe skips the bread and alliums that typically bulk up gazpacho, which keeps the soup super refreshing and light and helps extend its refrigerator shelf life: raw alliums like garlic and onion produce pungent gases after being pulverized, which can get in the way of the more delicate fruit flavors. To season the soup, we use a mix of acids (orange juice, lemon juice, white balsamic, and sherry vinegar—and malic acid, if you use it), which gives it extraordinary depth of flavor and a nicely balanced acidity and sweetness.

Tomato-Raspberry Gazpacho