Roasted Tomatillo Salsa
Lynley Jones
Tomatillos and chiles roasted together and blended with onions and cilantro. This green salsa is cool, crisp, spicy and a little tangy, perfect on tacos or tostadas, or dolloped on fried or scrambled eggs.
This recipe was originally featured in How To Make Tostadas in our Mostly Plants series.
Makes about 3 1/2 cups
Ingredients
Roasted Tomatillo Salsa made in the Adventure Kitchen.
1 1/2 pounds tomatillos
2-4 jalapeno or serrano chiles (depending on your tolerance and the heat of your chiles)
2 small yellow onions
1 bunch fresh cilantro
1 3/4 teaspoons coarse salt
Instructions
Tomatillos ready for Roasted Tomatillo Salsa in the Adventure Kitchen. Tomatillos can range from very pale to green to purplish. They grow inside a papery husk, enlarging to either completely fill - or more than fill - the husk when fully grown. When you remove the husks and rinse the tomatillos, you may notice they feel slightly sticky - this is normal. Once they are cooked, this stickiness will no longer be present.
1. Remove the papery husks from the tomatillos and rinse them. Preheat the broiler and put the tomatillos (still damp is ok) and chiles on a rimmed baking sheet lined with aluminum foil (heavy-duty foil will be easier to work with). Broil the tomatillos and chiles together for about 10-15 minutes, turning them a couple of times as needed, until they are soft and somewhat blackened and blistered.
2. Remove the stems from the chiles and drop the chiles into a blender. Add the tomatillos, along with their juices. Cut one of the onions into large chunks and add the chunks to the blender. Divide the bunch of cilantro in half. Reserve one half-bunch and use your hands or a knife to cut or tear the other half-bunch into pieces. Add the torn pieces to the blender, stems and all. Add the salt and blend to form a smooth puree.
Tomatillos husked, rinsed and ready for action in the Adventure Kitchen.
3. Dice the remaining onion into small pieces and mince half of the remaining cilantro (save the rest for another use). In a bowl, stir 2/3 of the onion into the salsa. Garnish with the remaining onion and the minced cilantro and serve.
Notes:
You can make this ahead and store it covered in the refrigerator for weeks.