Salsa Verde
Salsa Verde or Tomatillo Sauce, not to be confused with its cousin Tomato Salsa, is a beautiful vibrant green sauce. It makes a nice accent to the Enchiladas Sauce for your Chicken Enchiladas.
Grilling with love:
Making Salsa Verde at its simplest is to throw everything in a blender and go. I have yet to find myself doing that but I’m sure it will do in a pinch. I love the richness and depth of flavour added by grilling my vegetables.
In my Salsa Verde the Tomatillos, Onions and Poblano Peppers all get roasted, preferably on the BBQ. It’s hard to get that wonderful smokiness that comes from grilling on the BBQ any other way. It isn’t a huge step but I find it a crucial step to a nice rich sauce with depth of flavour.
The Hidden Flavour:
After all that flavour from grilling has been added allow the Peppers, Onions and Tomatillo’s to rest and cool off. Once the Poblano Peppers have cooled it’s time to remove the blackened skins. This might seem counter productive since you did all that work to blacken them in the first place. Trust me all that smokiness went right through the skin and into the meat of the Pepper.
Finishing off:
After everything has cooled down and the Poblano Peppers have been peeled break out the blender. Throw everything in the blender and pulse your way to a beautiful vibrant green Sauce. Your sauce will not be smooth but think about most Tomato Salsa’s you’ve had.
You can make your Salsa Verde days or weeks ahead of time and can it for future use. If you’re having guests over on the weekend make it a couple days ahead and keep it in the fridge.
Just in case you weren’t quite sure what a Tomatillos looks like when your shopping here’s a picture. They look similar to a green Tomato wearing a green Jacket. The more northern you are the harder they are to find but most grocery stores carry them these days.
Salsa Verde
Ingredients
- 12 oz Tomatillos Sliced in Half
- 1 Large Onion Peeled & Cut into thick Rounds
- 2 Poblano Peppers
- 1 Tbsp Olive Oil Vegetable Oil can be Substituted
- 1/2 C Cilantro
- 1 Tbsp Red Wine Vinegar
- 1/4 C Chicken Stock
- 1 Tbsp Lemon juice
- 1 tsp Ground Coriander
- 2 Large Pinches Salt
Instructions
- Let's start by either getting our BBQ or cooktop grill nice and hot. If you don't have either go ahead and use the broiler in your oven.
- While things are heating up, peel the Onion leaving it whole, then cut it into thick medallions that can hold up to the BBQ.
- If the Tomatillos are small just slice them in half. If they are large create medallions with a similar thickness to the Onions.
- Coat the Onions, Tomatillos and Poblano Peppers lightly with Oil and season with Salt. Place them on the grill and sit back and relax for a couple minutes while they start to cook and get some grill marks.
- The Tomatillos will probably finish cooking first so remove them when they have some nice grill marks. After that the Onions will come off and finally wait until the Poblano Peppers are Black, and I mean BLACK, all the way around. Make sure to turn the Peppers as each side blackens before taking them off the grill.
- The Onions and Tomatillos can go straight into the blender to cool down. The Peppers should either go into a zip lock bag or a bowl covered with seran wrap as they cool. This will help the skins release off the meat and make them easier to peel.
- Use the back of a bread knife or a spoon and gently slap the black off the cooled Peppers. Don't worry if you don't get all the black off.
- Place everything into the blender and Pulse away until you have something that resembles a semi smooth Salsa.
- This can be used right away, placed in the fridge for use in the next few days or canned and stored for the future.