Make salsa verde with your bumper crop of tomatillos

Several years ago, I discovered how easy it is to grow tomatillos. It’s almost too easy (as long as you have more than one plant)! That first growing season, I had such an abundance of the husk-covered fruits, I couldn’t keep up with the harvest. I happened to discover a timely salsa verde recipe in a magazine and I’ve been making it ever since. I’ve adapted the recipe over the years to tweak the flavor. If I want it to be tangier, I leave the honey out. For extra spice, I’ll play with the amount of hot peppers I add. This recipe is so easy to make, there is barely any prep involved.

Any extra salsa that can’t be eaten right away is frozen. It’s exciting to pull it out to thaw over the winter months. Salsa verde is delicious on tacos, burrito bowls, and enchiladas, or spooned over chicken and fish.

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 (or more) serrano peppers (I use jalapeños)
• 1 to 2 cloves of minced garlic
• 1 tbsp of lime juice
• 2 teaspoons of liquid honey
• a pinch of salt to taste
• 2 to 4 green onions, thinly sliced, or fresh chives (optional)
• Chopped fresh cilantro (optional)

Making salsa verde

Preheat the oven to 450°F.

Harvest 10 to 12 tomatillos from your garden. You can also find them at grocery stores and farmers’ markets. Remove the papery husks and give them a rinse to remove the sticky coating and any debris. Dry the tomatillos and place them on a cookie sheet lightly coated with olive oil (I use a foil-topped cookie sheet to preserve my pans). Add the pepper, as well.

Roast your tomatillos and the pepper for about five minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and flip everything over. Add the garlic and roast for another five minutes. Everything will start to blister and occasionally a tomatillo will burst open. Scoop up all the juices to add to the food processor, so that nothing goes to waste.

Cut off the stem and gently scrape the seeds away from the hot pepper(s) when it’s cooled off.

Add the tomatillos, hot pepper(s), 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 the cilantro.

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