It’s late summer and the tomatillos are in season. It’s a great time of year! I absolutely love tomatillos and their bright and sour flavor. They add wonderful acidity and tang to dishes and lend well to grilling or roasting, which mellows their intensity, bringing out their sweeter side. Tomatillos are a small green tomato-like fruit that is encased in a papery wrapper. They are easy to grow and much more disease resistant than regular tomatoes; they are a welcomed plant in my garden.
Harvest tomatillos when they are large enough to fill out their papery wrapper, but not so big that they spilt their husk. To prepare, remove the husk from each tomatillo and rinse the sticky sap coating from the fruit. For this recipe, you will need approximately 20 tomatillos (of varying sizes). Once rinsed, set aside to dry and prepare the remaining ingredients. Halve one lime, halve and deseed two jalapenos and remove the paper from one onion and cut it in half. Place all the vegetables on a large sheet pan and drizzle with 1½ tablespoons of olive oil and a three-fingered pinch of salt.
Heat a grill to 400 deg F. Place the vegetables on the hot grill and cook the vegetables for about 3-4 minutes per side or until charred and hot. Place the grilled vegetables back on the sheet pan and allow them to cool for about 5 minutes.
Add the grilled vegetables to a large food processor and squeeze the juice from the grilled lime overtop of the vegetables. Add one large clove of garlic, 1½ teaspoons of kosher salt, 1 teaspoon of cumin, ¼ cup (handful) of fresh cilantro leaves and stems and 3 tablespoons of agave syrup. Pulse the food processor until the salsa reaches the desired consistency. I like my salsa chunky, but others may like theirs smoother. You do you.
This recipe makes 3-4 cups of salsa. The salsa will keep in the refrigerator for one week.
Grilled Tomatillo Salsa
Ingredients
- 20 tomatillos
- 1 lime
- 2 jalapeños
- 1 medium onion
- 1 large clove of garlic
- 1½ tsp kosher salt
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- ¼ cup fresh cilantro
- 3 tbsp agave syrup
Instructions
- Remove husks from tomatillos and rinse. Set aside.
- Halve one lime. Halve and deseed two jalepenos and peel and halve one onion.
- Add the vegetables to a large baking sheet and drizzle with 1½ tablespoons of olive oil and a large pinch of kosher salt.
- Heat a grill to 400°F. Add the vegetables to the hot grill and cook for 3-4 minutes per side until charred and hot. Place the vegetables back onto the same baking sheet and allow them to cool for about 5 minutes.
- Add the vegetables to a large food processor and squeeze the juice from the grilled lime over the vegetables. Add the garlic, salt, cumin, cilantro and agave nectar.
- Pulse the processor until the salsa reaches the desired consistency. Enjoy!
- This recipe makes 3-4 cups of salsa. It will keep for one week in the refrigerator.
