Green Tomatillo Salsa Verde
8 November 2015 | BY ANDJELKA JANKOVIC | Travel
Just follow all the pretty lights, get lost till it feels right
Gluten free, vegan, dairy free
On my travels in Chicago I couchsurfed with a music journalist who didn’t eat vegetables. “Not even sweet potato fries? How about snap peas? You must eat corn (chips)…” I enquired and was received with a flat out no. Determined to cook breakfast for my new friend and convert her to the kingdom of plants, I headed to a neighbourhood farmers market looking for a vegetable muse.
A peculiar looking green tomato called a ‘tomatillo’ jumped out at me. Having never seen one before in Australia, I was excited to create a frittata (disguising vegetables with delicious eggs – works a treat) with a side of homemade green tomatillo salsa verde. Tomatillos are not tomatoes – they are cousins, and cannot be eaten raw. They must be roasted until soft to release their zingy and fresh flavours that make this salsa verde so endlessly spoonable (like ice cream crazy good!).
After breakfast, I left a bowl of salsa verde in the fridge. Later in the day, I received a text message from the said ‘vegetable hater’ with: “I can’t stop eating the verde, please come back and make more”. It seems this salsa verde might be a game changer with the humble tomatillo as the entry level vegetable. Try it and have an easy-peasy-tomatillo-squeezy party!
INGREDIENTS
8 large green tomatillos, husked and washed
1 small jalapeno or green chilli
½ white onion, diced
2 handfuls of fresh coriander, chopped
2 limes, juiced
1 teaspoon sea salt
METHOD
Place the tomatillos and jalapeño on a lined baking tray in a 350 degree oven for 10-15 minutes until soft and slightly blackened.
Combine the onion, coriander, lemon juice and sea salt in a food processor and blend.
When the tomatillos are ready, carefully transfer them with all their juices into the food processor and blend together.
Pulse until mixture is textured but smooth. Season to taste.
LOVE NOTES
Add 2 diced avocados to the mix to create creamy avocado salsa verde – a match made in dip heaven.
Roast a bunch of seasonal vegetables (eggplant, parsnip, sweet potato) and cut up vegetable crudités as a colourful and nutritious snack/meal.
If you can’t find tomatillos (sorry Australians), you can buy tinned green tomatoes from Latin or Mexican groceries. I would roast the same way with the juice as to not waste any tomatillo deliciousness.