YIELD: 4 to 6 servings | PREP TIME: 15 minutes | GRILLING TIME: 10 to 20 minutes | CHILLING TIME: 2 hours
• 8 medium vine-ripened tomatoes (about 2½ pounds), sliced in half
• 2 zucchini (about ½ pound), cut into ½-inch rounds
• 2 yellow squash (about ½ pound), cut into ½-inch rounds
• 1 large Vidalia or yellow onion, cut into ½-inch slices
• 2 tablespoons avocado oil
• 2 bell peppers (red, yellow, orange, or a combination)
• 2 cloves garlic
• ¼ cup red wine vinegar
• ¼ cup fresh lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon packed fresh oregano leaves, divided
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
• ¼ cup pitted Kalamata olives
• 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
1. Preheat a grill to medium-high.
2. In a large bowl, toss the tomatoes, zucchini, yellow squash, and onion with the avocado oil.
3. Arrange the tomatoes, zucchini, yellow squash, and onion slices, along with the bell peppers, on the grill. Close the lid and cook for 5 minutes. Check the veggies and flip as needed. Continue cooking until they are moderately charred on all sides. As they finish cooking, remove them to a rimmed baking sheet. Depending on the heat level of your grill, it should take between 10 and 20 minutes for all of the veggies to cook.
4. Set aside a few slices of grilled onion.
5. Place the tomatoes and bell peppers in a heatproof bowl and cover with plastic wrap. When they are cool enough to handle, pull the skins off. Cut the peppers in half and remove the seeds. Place the tomatoes, peppers, remaining onion slices, garlic, vinegar, lemon juice, half of the oregano, and salt in a blender. Blend until smooth, slowly drizzling in the olive oil as the motor runs.
6. Cut the reserved onion slices, zucchini, yellow squash, and olives into small dice and place in a small bowl. Mince the remaining half of the oregano and add it, along with the lemon zest, to the diced vegetables and olives and mix everything together.
7. At this point, you can either combine the pureed and diced parts of the soup or keep them separate for presentation purposes, if you prefer. Refrigerate until very cold, at least 2 hours.
8. To serve: If you have chilled the pureed soup and the diced vegetable mixture separately, divide the diced vegetable mixture among four to six serving bowls and then pour in the soup.
Chef’s Tip: To keep the onion rings from falling through the grill grates, stick a toothpick through the slices before tossing them with the oil.
