Coming to you live with a salsa verde recipe after three months of silence! Since my last post, so much has happened it’s practically unbelievable. Alex has found and begun a new (fully-remote) job, I have finished my first semester at JMU as an English major (3.6 GPA, baby!), and we have both moved into a massive two-bedroom apartment in Harrisonburg, VA. Settling into our new lifestyle has been a rush, and some of the best parts of living in our new place have been the huge kitchen and the close proximity to some ridiculously fresh produce. Instead of driving half an hour to Wegman’s for a decent selection of reasonably-priced groceries, we are now able to crawl out of bed on Saturday mornings and head directly to the local farmer’s market for inexpensive, local, organic fruits and vegetables. I feel like a kid walking through GameStop in 2007 with $20 to burn every time we roll into the parking lot, hippie canvas grocery bags in hand. And don’t even get me started on the local food co-op!
On one of those trips to the farmer’s market, we came across a stall selling fresh tomatillos, and without having any clue what to use them for I grabbed four. Thus, this creamy salsa verde was born. It was one of the first things I made in our new kitchen, so it seemed fitting to photograph and post this salsa verde as a means of getting my butt back in gear with blogging. I’m hoping to recreate and document many of the new dishes I mentioned in my chicken adobo post in the coming weeks (the photos for which were actually taken in March, not June–whoops), as well as a few new recipes I’ve been testing out since we arrived in the new place. We even tried deep-frying for the first time last night! Overall, it’s been an exciting couple of months, and I can’t wait to get back into the habit of posting new recipes on a regular basis.
While we managed to eat most of this creamy tomatillo and avocado salsa verde with chips before it ever made it into an actual meal, I originally whipped this up to go with a taco spread to celebrate the completion of our dining table. I’ve been eating fully plant-based (vegan, basically) since mid-May, and it was great to finally have the space to whip up some black bean tofu “sofritas” for me and ground beef for Alex without taking over half of the apartment with dishes. This recipe paired deliciously with both, and its sharp spice complimented the mild sweetness of the “sofritas” particularly well. This salsa verde works wonderfully as both a stand-alone snack and an element of a larger meal, making it one of my most versatile recipes yet!
This recipe makes about 1 1/4 cups salsa.
Ingredients:
- 4 tomatillos
- 1 avocado
- 1 white onion
- 2 cloves garlic
- 2 jalapenos
- 1/2 cup cilantro
- 2 tbsp lime juice
- 1 tbsp light oil
- 1 tsp lime zest
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp white pepper
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 425F.
- Peel and wash tomatillos, slice onion into large quarters, slice jalapenos down the middle to form four total halves. Wrap whole garlic cloves in parchment paper with black pepper and 1/4 tsp oil to form a small roasting pouch.
- Lay vegetables on a large baking sheet and cover with salt, white pepper, and remaining oil. Add garlic roasting pouch seam-side down to ensure it does not open while roasting. Roast for 10-15 minutes, or until vegetables have begun to brown.
- Combine roasted vegetables, avocado, cilantro, lime juice, lime zest, and cumin to a food processor and blend until smooth. Add additional salt to taste if necessary.
Tomatillo & Avocado Salsa Verde
Ingredients
- 4 tomatillos
- 1 avocado
- 1 white onion
- 2 cloves garlic
- 2 jalapenos
- ½ cup cilantro
- 2 tbsp lime juice
- 1 tbsp light oil
- 1 tsp lime zest
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1 tsp salt
- ½ tsp white pepper
- ¼ tsp black pepper
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425F.
- Peel and wash tomatillos, slice onion into large quarters, slice jalapenos down the middle to form four total halves. Wrap whole garlic cloves in parchment paper with black pepper and 1/4 tsp oil to form a small roasting pouch.
- Lay vegetables on a large baking sheet and cover with salt, white pepper, and remaining oil. Add garlic roasting pouch seam-side down to ensure it does not open while roasting. Roast for 10-15 minutes, or until vegetables have begun to brown.
- Combine roasted vegetables, avocado, cilantro, lime juice, lime zest, and cumin to a food processor and blend until smooth. Add additional salt to taste if necessary.