Tomatillos: The taste of summertime

If there is one thing that tastes like summer, it is salsa verde.  It’s the perfect hot weather food, it’s super easy to make, and it just tastes fresh and green! Its pretty much my go to food in the summer. I make it for snacks and gatherings, and I put it on everything. Chips, eggs, meat, cous-cous,  you name it!  Currently that I have five thriving tomatillo plants in my garden. I planted a few last year, and they did moderately well, but not spectacularly… but  with a new year, more gardening experience, good intentions, and visions of salsa verde, I made another attempt this year.

The two plants I purchased did really well… and then as I was getting ready to move from my apartment to my house, I noticed that I had about 15 volunteer tomatillos sprouting up, so I dug up a few, and brought them with me when I moved as an experiment. Why not? I was half expecting them to bite the dust,  but if they didn’t survive I wouldn’t be heartbroken.  Turns out they are now thriving, and now I have more tomatillos growing in my garden than anything else.  

Since I have tomatillos in abundance, I started to research other things I could make with them. As I mentioned, salsa verde is the perfect summer snack, but really, there is only SO much salsa verde you can make, so I’ve been trying to expand my tomatillo horizons.  They have this great astringent quality to them, and I really like the flavor… almost like green apple. And their texture is fantastic! Most recipes that I found wanted to use the tomatillos  to pair with Spanish/Mexican food. Delicious, but predictable... so I've been trying to do some different things with them. Lately I’ve been making fried tomatillos, sort of as a riff off fried green tomatoes… but I actually like them better, because the tomatillos are more firm, and easier to fry.

I love the different shades and shapes

You have to soak/ rinse them off before using them, cause they tend to be sticky/ slimy

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Sunset Magazine recently featured a recipe for pickled tomatillos, which have been dying to try, and they also suggested putting them in a grilled cheese sandwich with bacon (which I did, and it was delicious).  I’ve always been a bit fearful of pickling, but it seemed fairly straightforward, and they are just refrigerator pickles, so they were easy enough. I have yet to try them, but they look beautiful in the jar, and apparently they are a great accompaniment to bloody marys. I made mine on Wednesday, so they’ve been in the fridge developing some flavor… I have high hopes for them. 

Earlier in the week I was wanting a really quick meal, so I ended up roasting some tomatillos under the broiler, and blending them into a sauce. Probably the easiest sauce I’ve ever made, and the flavor was fantastic. I added in some grilled onions and a bit of salt, blended everything in the blender and voila. I just served it over rice, but the sauce had a nice richness to it, and I think it would actually make a great addition to any tomato sauce. 

Roasted Tomatillos

I still have tomatillos coming out my ears, and I think salsa verde will still be a staple in my house for the next several weeks,  so here is the recipe.

•  
• 2 cloves garlic, pealed
• Tomatillos (to taste…. 6-7?) peeled, washed and quartered.
• Bundle of cilantro
• 1 Serrano pepper, roasted
• Onion (again to taste… I never measure)
• Salt
• Agave nectar to taste.
• Avocado
• ½ lime

Put everything in a food processor except the avocado and lime.  Blend until desired consistency, add in avocado and fresh squeezed lime juice.Serve on anything and everything.