SAUCES AND SPREADS: Homemade Salsa Verde

One of the first seedlings I picked up for my garden was my tomatillo plant. After planting it I did some research and discovered that in order for the tomatillo plant to produce fruit you really need to plant two plants so they can cross pollinate. Unfortunately I had run out of space in my plot so I couldn’t plant another one. I decided to just let it grow and see what happens.

Well over the last couple weeks we finally had some of the flowers turn into tomatillo husks and yesterday, when we returned from vacation, I discovered that some of those husks actually turned into TOMATILLO FRUIT! So exciting! I picked ~15 of them (in addition to lots of other amazing produce) with the intent of making something with them for dinner. I was making some enchilada baked chicken so I decided a tomatillo salsa verde would be a perfect compliment. Maybe I was drawing some inspiration from our recent trip to Mexico?! This salsa verde recipe is ridiculously easy to make and requires about 15 minutes of your time. It was delicious! We had enough to seal into a mason jar so we can enjoy it for the rest of the week! I can’t wait to use it again tonight for Taco Tuesday!

Ingredients:

Tomatillos, ~15 small, de-husked and washed with warm water

Fresh Lemon Juice, from 1 lemon

Garlic, 2 cloves smashed

Onion, 1/2 roughly chopped

Sea Salt, to taste

Fresh Ground Pepper, to taste

Fresh Cilantro or Flat Leaf Parsley, for freshness

Directions:

1. De-husk the tomatillos and rinse with warm water. Under the husk, the tomatillo will be a little sticky. You are rinsing them to get this sticky substance off.

2. Boil a pot of water on the stove. Once the water reaches a rolling boil, carefully place the cleaned tomatillos into the water and allow to cook for 5 minutes. You do not want them to get mushy so USE A TIMER.

3. Remove the pot from the heat and then remove the tomatillos from the water and place into your Cuisinart Food Processor.  Add the juice of 1 lemon, garlic, onion, sea salt, and fresh ground pepper.

4. Pulse until smooth.

5. Taste for seasoning. Add more sea salt or pepper if desired.

6.  Add the fresh parsley or cilantro at the end for some additional color and freshness. Pulse until the fresh herbs are broken up to your liking.

7. Use immediately or seal into a Ball Mason Jar and place into the fridge.

**I used this salsa over my baked enchilada chicken breasts. It added a nice freshness and tang. It can also be used in a tostada, on top of nachos, with crispy Tostitos Tortilla Chips, over a burrito or over enchiladas! So many fun uses and so easy to make!

Tomatillo Ripe For The Picking

All De-Husked And Cleaned

The Finished Product