Have a bumper crop of tomatillos? Make salsa verde!

A few years ago, I discovered how easy tomatillos are to grow (they’re vigorous self seeders, but that’s another story!). I also discovered how delicious they are blended into a salsa verde. This year, because of a wee Colorado potato beetle issue, not to mention the late start to the season here in Southern Ontario, my tomatillos are far from ready. At this time last year, I was already picking them! But I grabbed some from the local farmers’ market so I could make this salsa recipe that I’ve adapted from several recipes I’ve found over the years!

Salsa verde
I freeze salsa portions in jars and enjoy it throughout the winter. It’s delicious served over chicken and fish, and I especially like adding spoonfuls to tacos!

Ingredients
* About 10 to 12 medium-sized tomatillos (roughly the size of a plum or a golf ball – use more if they’re small)
* 1 small hot pepper if you like a bit of spice
* 1 to 2 cloves of minced garlic (I use a fine grater to grate it right into the food processor)
* 1 tbsp of lime juice
* 2 teaspoons of liquid honey
* a pinch of salt
* 2 to 4 green onions, thinly sliced, or fresh chives (optional)
* Fresh cilantro (optional)

Mixing it together
Remove the husks from your tomatillos and give them a rinse to remove the sticky coating and any debris. Dry them off and place on a cookie sheet lightly coated with olive oil (I use a foil-topped cookie sheet to preserve my pans).

Roast your tomatillos and the pepper for 5 minutes, then flip and roast for another 5. Everything will start to blister and occasionally a tomatillo will burst open (just be sure to scoop up all the juices when you’re blending so that nothing goes to waste!).

Gently scrape the seeds away from the hot pepper when it’s cooled off a bit.

Add the tomatillos, hot pepper, garlic, lime juice, honey and salt to a food processor and blend.

Pour into a bowl and stir in the onions or chives and/or cilantro.