I made this recipe, took a bite, and lost my mind.
I mean, in a good way of course.
It was SO good. And SO easy. Sometimes cooking is more rewarding than other times, and this Easy Roasted Tomatillo Salsa was a very rewarding time.
And so little effort – 10 (TEN) minutes, start to finish.
And it’s SO good. I can’t remember if I mentioned that.
It looks like a real salsa, right? #legit
I hope my short, choppy sentences are giving you some feeling of how eager I am to get this post up!
I had never made a salsa before. Not like this. I have chopped tomatoes in the most unsatisfying of ways for a pico, and I have made a pineapple topping-type salsa as well. Both took a lot of chopping relative to how little time it takes me to inhale salsa, and I wouldn’t put them squarely in the “totally rewarding” column.
But this.
I was previously intimidated by tomatillos. Just no exposure to them, I think. But I was at a farmer’s market on Thursday, looking for some vegetables for a Farmer’s Market Breakfast Casserole to serve a friend for brunch the next day, and I couldn’t find anything that struck my fancy. LOTS of zucchini and peaches and eggplant and watermelon, but I was not inspired.
Then I saw tomatillos.
Which was fortuitous, because I have since learned that it’s a little early for local tomatillos. You can pretty much always find them in grocery stores, but it’s not their farmers market season in the mid-Atlantic right now. I had an idea, and quickly did an internet search for tomatillo salsa recipes – and they looked totally doable. I don’t know what I was expecting a recipe to say that would dissuade me, but I definitely did not expect it to be as easy as roasting and blending.
So I worried a little less about the vegetables I would use in my casserole (although I did get a great herbed soft cheese to add to the mix) because I knew I had a great topping for it. Well, I hoped I had a great topping for it (and SPOILER ALERT, I did).
All the recipe entails is peeling the papery skins off of the tomatillos (it comes right off), and wash the tomatillos (they will be a little tacky).
Then slice them in half (I don’t know if it would actually matter, but I think it’s preferable to cut them through the middle, not through the stem dimple), and place them sliced-side down on a prepared baking sheet. Add a few garlic cloves, and broil until the tomatillo skins start to blacken – this will take about 7 minutes, but as always when your broiler is on, keep an eye on it! I know this photo looks like a million garlic cloves, but it was a double batch of tomatillos with 3 GINORMOUS cloves of garlic, that when smashed, basically tripled in number.
While the broiler is doing its thing, prep the other ingredients – chopping a sweet or white onion and a jalapeno, and slicing off the bottoms of some cilantro. Place those in a food processor with a little lime juice and a pinch of salt, and when the tomatillos are done, place all of the tomatillos with their juices, and garlic, in the food processor. If you use heavy duty aluminum foil, it should not be hard to peel off the foil and funnel the contents into the food processor bowl.
You may want to wait a minute for the tomatillos to cool off just a bit, but 30 seconds in the food processor, max, and you have Easy Roasted Tomatillo Salsa. Lots of it. A pound of tomatillos makes between 1.5 and 2 cups of salsa.
I think this salsa is best room temperature or even a little warm. Use it to top your breakfast food – or your lunch or dinner – or as a traditional chip dipper.
I brought this salsa (… after having to run out for more tomatillos … twice … because I kept eating. the. salsa.) to a backyard BBQ party last night, and recommend it as a very easy dish to bring to parties, with a bag of chips.
I may never buy a jar of salsa again! I think we have probably covered how easy this recipe is to make; and the only sodium in this recipe is in the salt you add (and you don’t need much at all – if any!). No oil needed for roasting, either. Super healthy recipe: check.
- 1 lb or 1 pint tomatillos (depending on size, about 8-10)
- 2 large cloves garlic (or more, if smaller) (or more, if you just love garlic)
- ½ sweet onion, roughly chopped
- ½ - 1 jalapeno, flesh only (seeds removed)
- ½ bunch cilantro, tough stem ends cut off
- 2 tsp lime juice
- pinch of kosher salt
- Heat the broiler in the oven and place an oven rack a few inches from the element. Prepare a large rimmed sheet pan by covering it with heavy-duty aluminum foil. If you can use one piece (avoiding making seams that the juices can slip through), that's ideal.
- Peel the papers off the tomatillos, and place the tomatillos in a large bowl of water as you peel them. Discard the papers. Give the tomatillos a rough wash, and slice them in half using a serrated knife. I recommend slicing across the middle (instead of through the stem dimple).
- Place the tomatillo halves cut-side down on the foil-lined pan.
- Add two large cloves of garlic to the sheet pan (peeled).
- Set the kitchen timer for 7 minutes, and broil the tomatillos and garlic.
- While the tomatillos are broiling, prepare the rest of the ingredients and place them in the food processor bowl: chop half of a sweet onion, slice or chop the jalapeno (removing the seeds), chop the stalky ends off the cilantro; measure the lime juice; and pinch the salt.
- When the tomatillos have blackened a bit (if they need another minute of two, that's fine), remove the pan from the oven and let them cool for a minute, and then add the tomatillos and their juices, and the garlic, to the food processor bowl. Everything goes in.
- Process the salsa for 30 seconds, or until everything is well-blended.
Adapted from: https://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/tomatillo_salsa_verde/
Tell me what you think!