This authentic, 5-ingredient salsa verde made with tomatillos and Hatch chiles gets its depth of flavor from roasting the veggies to a light char to develop their inherent sweetness.
Right now. It’s happening. And there’s no better time to take advantage of it—of every single, last, bit(e).
There’s truly no better—and easier—time of year to eat seasonal. Fresh fruit is literally falling from the trees and the bounty of the summer harvest is at full throttle, artfully displayed in droves at farmer’s markets in small towns and big cities alike. Even grocery store produce tastes fresher and looks better. It’s here for one and all to savor.
Again this month, my friend Becky of the Vintage Mixer has posted her Seasonal Produce Guide featuring all of the stars of September produce (you can find it here.)
Her inspiring list is so plentiful this month! It’s a true testament to just how lucky we are to live in a country where food is fresh, ample and readily available. It’s time to take advantage of it, and linger a little longer as you say thanks with each and every joyful bite.
I for one am bound and determined to get my fill. I’ve made it my mantra to eat more fruits and veg this summer and to truly eat fresh and eat seasonal, relishing each taste at it’s peak.
I’m eating plums and nectarines like potato chips. I pop cherry tomatoes in my mouth like they’re pieces of red licorice. And just about every night there’s some sort of squash, cucumber or pepper holding court at our dinner table.
This past week at the farmer’s market the tomatillos were looking stellar, and I had a batch of Hatch chiles that had been hand delivered to me by my friend Amanda, all the way from New Mexico where they’re namesaked. Now that’s service!
For today’s recipe I put 1 + 1 together to come up with this super fresh, salsa verde. Not only does it make an epic appetizer all on it’s own, and is sure to make it’s way to my husband’s over easy eggs during the week, it’s also the base for another recipe (think spicy!) I’ll be sharing on Thursday. And tomorrow I’ll show you my shortcut for roasting Hatch chiles for optimal flavor with ease.
About the recipe:
This salsa verde gets its depth of flavor from roasting the veggies to a light char to develop their inherent sweetness. Roasting the tomatillos also mellows the tartness or bitterness some folks find in these little cousins to the gooseberry.
If Hatch chiles aren’t readily available, substitute 1 or 2 jalapeños for the chiles, depending on your desire for heat. Unlike the Hatch chiles, you can go ahead and roast the jalapeños alongside the onion and garlic and simply remove the stem, leaving the skin intact, before blending with the other ingredients. For Hatch chiles, roasting and stripping the skin makes for a smoother, richer flavor that blends best for salsa.
With only 5 main ingredients in this salsa, make sure your tomatillos are firm, but not hard. The papery husks should be easy to pull apart from the fruit, so if the husk is gluey and stuck to the tomatillo making it difficult to remove, take that as a not-so-fresh warning sign.
If you make this recipe, please let me know! Leave a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ rating on this recipe below and leave a comment, take a photo and tag me on Instagram with #foodiecrusheats.
How to Make Salsa Verde
Ingredients
- 2 pounds tomatillos , husked and rinsed
- 1 medium yellow onion , peeled and quartered
- 4 cloves garlic , peeled and smashed
- 2-4 roasted hatch chiles , or one fresh jalapeño, stemmed
- ⅓ cup loosely packed cilantro leaves
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- Cotija cheese for garnish
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.
- Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray and place the tomatillos, quartered onion and garlic cloves on the baking tray. If using a jalapeño, add it to the baking tray with the other vegetables.
- Roast the vegetables for 20 minutes flipping the vegetables at the 10 minute mark. The tomatillos should be lightly charred and the onion beginning to brown.
- Transfer the roasted vegetables and roasted Hatch chiles (or jalapeño) and any remaining juice on the baking sheet to a food processor or blender. Blend until almost smooth. Add the cilantro leaves and kosher salt and pulse a few more times until mixed.
- Serve the salsa topped with cotija cheese if desired and yellow or white corn tortilla chips for dipping.
Nutrition
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Hi Heidi,
Your friend from the bank. I made this salsa today and it was incredible!! I added 4 roasted green chilies and it added a nice heat to it. My hubby, son and his wife loved it!! It’s a keeper for us. Thank you sweetie!
Hi Diana! We’re so glad to hear you and your family loved this!
Tomatillos fresh from the garden are sticky.
Can you tell me if this can be canned? If not would it be ok to freeze it and thaw for use later? I came across a ton of hatch chiles at the store (unusual for outside of NM) and I wanna take advantage of them!
Thank you for mentioning Hatch Green Chile. We would love to send you a free box of our Hatch Green Chile as a thank you. If you’re interested, please send me an email.
Just made this recipe. Halved it based on the amount of tomatillos I had, roasted the veggies in the toaster oven as my house is too hot to use the real oven (in fact, I live in NM), and used a Magic Bullet in turns for blending. Came out perfect. My husband just ate three tortillas with only cheese and this on them! Thank you for the easy recipe.
That is great Jenna! So glad you liked it and great idea on blending it in the Magic Bullet.
Hatch me, Heidi!
There is absolutely 100% no other substitute for hatch or any other true New Mexico green chile.
This salsa is my favorite kind. I seriously am so glad I can learn how to make it at home now!
This looks just perfect! Thanks for the recipe Heidi!
We love salsa verde! Great idea to make it with hatch chiles!
love this. . I’m all about eating seasonally and buying local. . there’s really no other way to go about it in my book! love love love salsa verde. . I needed this yesterday to add to my white bean and chicken chili! yumm!
As a former New Mexican, I’m loving all of the Hatch chile recipes, and this one is no exception!! Just give me some chips – I want to dive in!
Heidi, you’re tempting me here! So impressed with your sweet friend to bring such a special delivery – you’ve made good use of the Hatch chilies! I would dive right in :)
I love tomatillo salsa, this looks fab!
One of my favourite’s – this looks awesome. Thanks for sharing :)
Hands down my favorite sauce. We make it by the gallons (okay, not really, but I wish!) every summer.
I make a similar recipe whenever I can find tomatillos! I love salsa verde…it is so good! I wish our local grocery stores would carry tomatillos more often. One of the farms nearby grows them, but they don’t bring them to the farmer’s market because they said not enough people buy them. Last week I told them I will buy them if they bring them! Pinning!
I promise. It will be worth it!
Can’t wait to make this. Love your blog! Always look forward to reading your posts.
Thanks so much for saying so Karen, comments like yours make doing this well worth while. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
I have always enjoyed this when we would go out, never thought making it, looks like a good weekend project.
My father would absolutely devour this salsa! Yum!
This looks perfect! I have the hardest time finding hatch chiles near me, but this motivates me to try to find them again! I could go to town on this salsa.
You can order from new Mexico and have then shipped to you by the pound:) or just take a road trip!!!!
I could drink this.
Adore this every which way! My goal now that we have a house is to turn into a crazy canning lady, so that I can bottle up all of this summer flavor for winter. No way could I can this though—I’d want to eat it all IMMEDIATELY.