At any restaurant in Mexico, rest assured that when there is a choice between salsa roja or salsa verde, I will always choose verde. I love the spicy and tangy salsas that are made from tomatillos. If you’ve never had a tomatillo based salsa, you truly haven’t lived yet.
Tomatillos are a weird fruit, like their tomato friends (though not at all related), they grow on a vine and are best served fresh or charred. Tomatillos are a part of the gooseberry family, and have a similar outside papery husk that they grow in. They can be found in grocery stores during the summer months in Canada (sometimes), and are available year round in cans. I prefer to buy cans just for the convenience of being able to crack one open when I get a craving for it, but fresh is obviously a lot better.
To choose a good tomatillo (you usually need 10 – 15 medium sized ones for a salsa), you should pull back the husk a bit to see if the fruit underneath is a bright green. You want to check for mold (often a problem where I live). If you’re making a charred or boiled salsa, you should find some that are the same size so they cook at the same speed. Here you don’t need to worry about that.
Either open your 27-oz can of tomatillos (drain and rinse) or remove the husks from the fresh ones and rinse them well (they have a sticky residue on the outside). If you don’t have a high powered blender, chop the tomatillos into halves or quarters to help with blending. I usually throw all my ingredients in whole because I like to watch everything get pulverized in my vitamix for entertainment. Throw in 1 – 2 serrano peppers (or a jalapeño), remove the stem and seed if desired. Roughly chop up 1/4 cup of white onion, 1 garlic clove, and 10 – 15 sprigs of cilantro, stems removed if you prefer a chunkier salsa. Add 1/2 tsp fine sea salt.
For a smooth sauce, blend the sauce on low until the ingredients begin to come together, then blend on high for 20 – 30 seconds to fully pulverize the ingredients. For a chunky salsa, pulse the ingredients until the desired consistency is achieved. You may need to scrape down the sides halfway through.
Serve immediately. Best if used within one hour of blending.
Tomatillos tend to gelatinize when refrigerated, so just be aware and stir well before serving again if you refrigerated it. I regularly freeze 1/2 of the sauce when I make it, it does freeze and thaw well, it just tends to separate a bit upon thawing.
Easiest Tomatillo Salsa Verde
Equipment
- Blender
Ingredients
- 1 (27 oz) can whole tomatillos, OR 10-15 small fresh tomatillos
- 1-2 serrano peppers, stems removed and seeded if desired
- ¼ cup white onion, roughly chopped
- 1 garlic clove, roughly chopped
- 10-15 sprigs fresh cilantro
- ½ tsp fine sea salt
Directions
- Open the can of tomatillos and drain and rinse them in a strainer or, if using fresh tomatillos, remove the husks from the tomatillos and rinse them well under cold water to remove the sticky residue. Roughly chop the tomatillos into halves or quarters. Add the tomatillos to your blender.
- Add your de-stemmed and (opt.) deseeded serrano pepper(s) to the blender along with the white onion, garlic, cilantro (stems removed if serving a chunkier salsa), and the salt.
- For a smooth sauce, blend the sauce on low until the ingredients begin to come together, then blend on high for 20 – 30 seconds to fully pulverize the ingredients. For a chunky salsa, pulse the ingredients until the desired consistency is achieved. You may need to scrape down the sides halfway through.
- Serve immediately. Best if used within one hour of blending.
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