Tangy, spicy, and fresh. This homemade tomatillo salsa verde or Mexican green salsa is made with jalapeños, tomatillos, onion, garlic, salt, and cilantro. Great on tacos, tortas, or just about anything!
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What type of chiles should I use?
So there are 2 types that I would really use with this type of salsa. Jalapeños and/or serranos. The difference in taste is minimal, I would say the biggest difference is in the heat. Serranos are known for being spicier than the jalapeños. If you’d like a more mild tasting sauce, go with all jalapeños. You can also do half and half, or all serranos if you’d like it nice and spicy!
What is salsa verde?
Translated Salsa Verde just means Green Sauce. There are many types of salsas cooked or made with different ingredients and methods. There are roasted salsas, red salsas, chunky or smooth salsas.
For this salsa you want to use tomatillos, which is like a green tomato.
This salsa verde is considered a taqueria salsa or restaurant salsa that is great for tacos!
It tastes bitter, is that normal?
It could be the tomatillos overcooked. Tomatillos are cooked just until they change color. They go from this bright green to a greenish-brown. Do not let them burst! Pull them out of the water once they change color, it’s said that once they overcook or crack/burst open the taste changes and the sauce will taste off.
Chunky or smooth?
Both! If you like a smooth liquidy sauce, blend it for a longer time. If you like a chunky salsa where you can see the bits of the veggies, pulse the blender or blend for just a few seconds.
Step by step process
Get all of your ingredients ready by taking the husk off the tomatillos, de-stem your jalapeños, peel 2 cloves of garlic.
Wash your tomatillos to remove the sticky coating along with any dirt. While you’re there give your jalapeños a wash too.
Go ahead and add the tomatillos, jalapenos, onion, and clove of garlic to enough so that they are almost submerged.
Put them on the stove on medium heat, cover, and bring them to a boil.
Once they start boiling bring it down to a simmer
Once you’re at a simmer keep a close eye on your tomatillos. Once they start to change in color from a bright green to a greenish-brown you want to go ahead and remove them from your water because if left in there for too long they become extremely sour and your salsa will be completely ruined. go ahead and also remove your onion and garlic at that time. Leave your Jalapenos in there for another 2 to 3 minutes.
Turn off the heat and reserve some of the cooking water.
To your blender, add your jalapenos, tomatillos, onion, and garlic along with a small sliver of fresh garlic that was not boiled. Approximately half of a small clove of garlic or ¼ of a large clove of garlic.
Add salt and the reserved boiling water. Blend for approximately 30 seconds.
Lastly, throw the cilantro in to the blender and blend for another 15-20 seconds. You want it to blend but not complete disappear in your sauce. You want to see a few small cilantro bits floating around.
Serve with your favorite chip, over some tacos, in a torta, this can be enjoyed in so many ways!
Authentic Salsa Verde (Green Tomatillo Salsa) Recipe
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 25 minutes
- Yield: 2.5 cups 1x
Description
Tangy, spicy, and fresh. This salsa is made from jalapeños, tomatillos, onion, garlic, salt, and cilantro. Great on tacos, tortas, or just about anything!
Ingredients
- 4–5 tomatillos small to medium (approx ½ lb)
- 3–4 jalapenos (approx ¼ lb)
- 2 cloves of garlic
- ¼ of an onion
- 1 cup reserved cooking water
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- Handful of cilantro
Instructions
- Remove husks from the tomatillos and stems from the jalapeños.
- Wash the tomatillos to remove the sticky coating.
- Add the tomatillos, jalapeños, onion, and 1 clove of garlic to a pot with water enough to cover the ingredients.
- Bring to a boil and take down to a simmer.
- Once it’s at a simmer, keep an eye on the tomatillos. When they start to change in color from a bright green to a greenish-brown, remove them from the hot water.
- At this time you can also remove the onion and galirc.
- Continue to cook your jalapeños for another 2-3 minutes.
- When your jalapeños are done cooking, turn off the heat and reserve ¾ cup of cooking water.
- Add the tomatillos, jalapeños, onion, salt, cooked garlic clove, and half of a clove of fresh garlic to a blender.
- To the blender add the ¾ cup of the cooking water to the blender.
- Blend for about 30 seconds.
- Throw in a handful of fresh cilantro into the blender and blend for another 20-30 seconds.
- Serve with your favorite chip, over some tacos, in a torta, this can be enjoyed in so many ways!
Notes
- Feel free to replace or mix in some serrano peppers. They pack a bit more heat.
- DO NOT overcook your tomatillos. The sauce will taste off.
- To make it less spicy, don’t add as many jalapeños.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 2.5 cups
- Calories: 92
- Sugar: 3.2g
- Sodium: 2339mg
- Fat: 2.2g
- Saturated Fat: 0g
- Unsaturated Fat: 0g
- Trans Fat: 0g
- Carbohydrates: 18g
- Fiber: 5.6g
- Protein: 3.2g
- Cholesterol: 0g
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