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I have a funny story to tell you about tomatillo salsa verde. Growing up, this was not a sauce that was common in my house. I think I was probably in high school before I tasted salsa of any kind. While pepper sauce was served with every meal from breakfast to supper, salsa was not part of my reality until I was beginning to date, learning to drive, and teasing my bangs to the heavens.
You see, there was a new restaurant in a nearby town that quickly became all the rage. Oddly enough, I think it was the first Mexican restaurant in our area. We’d drive for 20 minutes to happily wait for a least an hour or so for a seat before heading to catch the latest movie and hold hands. But honestly, the cheese dip, chips, and salsa were as much of a draw as the excitement of hand holding.
I remember very well the first time I saw Tomatillo Salsa Verde on the menu. I remember it because I swore to my date the menu item had to be misspelled.
“How cool is it that this dish is named the same thing as my Grandmother Verdie?”
“What? I don’t think it’s spelled Verdie. It’s spelled verde as in green.”
Turning 15 shades of a color other than green, I quickly understood my faux pas – taking French in school rather than Spanish. I should have known, verde isn’t too far off from vert.
Oh well. Lesson learned.
But oh how have times changed.
We’ve gone from that one focal Mexican restaurant in town to having one on just about every corner.
We’ve gone from only having salsa on a special occasion to making it ourselves on a routine basis.
We’ve gone from thinking they’d named a dish after my Grandmother who’d never stepped foot in the restaurant to happily rolling our tongue with a Southern drawl as we order from the menu.
So now that I’ve thoroughly embarrassed myself and my lack of “worldliness”, I think I’ll just get to showing you how I make it.
Start with fresh tomatillos.
If you are lucky enough to have remembered to plant your tomatillo seeds (I did not), then I bet you have them starting to come in right about now.
Lucky dogs.
Anyway, peel away the papery husks and wash the tomatillo well.
Slice them in two and place on a baking sheet.
Place them in the oven under the broiler until the skins are roasted.
Remove from the oven and throw your tomatillos and other ingredients into a blender or food processor.
Process until well-blended.
Gobble it up!
Tomatillo Salsa Verde
Ingredients
- 1 lb tomatillos
- 1/2 medium onion quartered
- 1/2 cup cilantro chopped
- 2 Jalapeno peppers
- 1 tablespoon lime juice
- pinch of salt
- pinch of sugar
Instructions
- Remove husks and wash tomatillos well.
- Cut in half and place on a baking sheet.
- Broil in oven until skins become well-roasted, about 7-10 minutes.
- Remove from oven.
- Depending on your preference and age of the pepper, stem and seed to reduce the amount of heat.
- Place all ingredients in food processor or blender.
- Process until well-combined.
- Serve immediately or store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.
Have you ever embarrassed yourself silly over something? You sure do remember it, don’t ya?
That’s a cute story!!! And yes, yes, yes….I have done those things a million times! The one that makes me blush the most is when my husband & I were newly married, we went to New Orleans and, of course, Cafe Du Monde. I saw “cafe au lait” on the menu and just could NOT wrap my head around how to say it. I knew I didn’t have it right, but when the waiter came to our table, I ordered a “cafe o lot.” Oh yes. My hubby loves to tease me about that. 😉
(Your salsa looks delicious!)
Oh my goodness, Bridget. That’s so cute! Regardless of how you say it, I bet it tasted out of this world!
I love that story! I’m pretty sure I have a very similar story! I love salsa verde and I am growing tomatillos so hopefully I’ll be making this to freeze for the winter before I know it.
I’m so jealous you are growing tomatillos. I kept thinking I’d order the seeds the next time I ordered seeds and proceeded to not order any more seeds. Confused? Yeah, me too. Enjoy every last one of them for me.
It’s a favorite of ours too. We have a few peeking out, not yet ready to harvest though.
Don’t tell me when they come in, I might just sneak into your garden early one morning. 🙂
Mmmmmmm, I could eat that whole bowl!
Gorgeous photos Robyn!
Yumm! Looks sooo good. I love salsa!
Your story is too funny, sounds like something I might have said as well… 😉
those were the good ol’ days Robyn!! love this salsa!
I’m infatuated with salsa verde. I put it on everything. 🙂
MMhmm, love love this! I’d love to seriously dip a breakfast burrito in it. But that’s just me 😉
Yum! I started trying recipes with these in them last summer! I hadn’t even thought about planting any. Do you just eat this with chips? I’ve been trying to recreate a chili verde (with pork or beef) for my husband since his favorite Mexican restaurant disappeared! Do you have any favorite uses for this Robyn?
Fantastic recipe! I love Tomatillo salsa, and I can’t wait to try yours. Your story sounds funny and familiar because yes, I have stories to tell about me, embarrassing me. I won’t be telling them, but just ask my son or my husband. They haven’t forgotten any of them!! Thanks for a great post!!
Salsa verde is my favorite! Love.
Verde Salsa is our favorite.
It’s served at most Mexican restaurants here right alongside the more traditional tomato based salsas.
I remember the first time that I made it at home, I felt like I’d achieved Nirvana! Delicious, simple… YUM!
Great recipe! 🙂
Ha! that’s a cute story.
I have been obsessed with salsa verde since I discovered it years ago. It’s my favorite kind of salsa. I love serving salsa bars when I have get togethers and have yet to make a salsa verde for it, not sure why!
Yours looks so good! I love it over enchiladas too!
I’ve been looking for a salsa verde recipe and this one looks perfect…and easy! Can’t wait to try it!! Can you believe I’ve never cooked with tomatillos. Finally bought them last month but never found the right recipe. All the ones I saw had you boil the tomatillos. That just seemed that it would boil out in flavor, and I didn’t want to do that.
Thanks for sharing!! Stumbled it! 🙂
Denise – I do know what you mean. Roasting the tomatillos definitely brings out the full flavor and this recipe is definitely easy! Thanks so much for your sweet comment!
Hi, I loved your blog so much that I thought I would share this recipe on my blog. Salsa verde is such a classic! You have wonderful recipes, I would love to have you guest blog on my blog: A Mexican Fiesta. Would you be interested?
First time to your site, found via Pinterest, and have recently fallen head over heels with salsa verde so am looking to make it myself. Thanks for the recipe!
Embarrassing food pronunciation story: When I was in 7th grade my friend and her dad and I went to a water front restaurant via boat, stopped in for some appetizers. There was an item named the “Oshkosh Panache” (in Oshkosh, WI of course) and while ordering I said I’d take the “Oshkosh pan-a-chee,” being informed immediately that it was pronounced “pan-aah-shhh.” Who knew! Certainly not my 12 year old self, but I got laughed at good and hard for it 🙂
Its like indian chutney…..
Unfortunately, we never forget times of embarrassment-but at least we can laugh about it!
Have you tried roasting all your veggies? I also add a bit of chicken base or chicken stock. Yum! Now I’m going to have to make it!
If you buy the smaller tomatillos, you don’t have to worry about the seeds being too mature to eat.