Tomatillo Enchilada Sauce
One day I had a bucket of tomatillos…
And that is how this story begins…
My favorite part of this story is about community. My neighborhood has a Facebook page that has very friendly posts with lost or found pets, neighborhood questions or concerns, etc. A post showed up one day from a neighbor who had an abundance of tomatillos. Her comment was that she had already made more tomatillo enchilada sauce than she knew what to do with and therefore was offering to share tomatillos. Oooo, green enchilada sauce sounded so good. So, after a response and an agreed upon meet up time, I had a bucket of tomatillos, and a new friend who also loves to cook! Thank you Erin!
Reading through several recipe ideas, I determined the basic approach to green enchilada sauce is cooking the tomatillos together along with green chilis, jalapeno, onion, garlic, lime and some spices. There was a variety of thoughts for how to process the sauce and after looking through different versions I just combined some ideas, gave it a try, and it came out delicious! I loved one idea of roasting the vegetables together and having that “roasted” flavor but when I attempted this concept I found that too much liquid came out of the tomatillos so they were mushy in the roasting pan and didn’t really get a good roasted flavor. The second batch I cooked all the vegetables together in a dutch oven and then let them simmer, this worked well for flavor and was a bit easier too.
Whichever way you choose to cook up your tomatillos and vegetables, you will find this recipe easy, forgiving, and full of flavor.
INGREDIENTS -
A bucket of tomatillos 😂 I honestly don’t know how many there were, but it filled my dutch oven if that helps you estimate an amount!
1 onion, diced, approximately 2 cups
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 jalapeno, minced
1 anaheim pepper, diced, or 2 small cans of diced green chilies
Juice of 1 lime, about 2 tablespoons
2 Tbsp cumin
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 cups cilantro
I did not carefully measure, so don’t be intimidated by the amounts, or even be bold to add other ingredients if they sound good to you!
Peel the tomatillos and cut them into quarters. If you place the tomatillos in a bowl of water at the sink and peel from there, the skins seem to slide off easier in the water and the sticky part doesn’t linger on your hands as long.
Heat the olive oil to medium in a heavy pot or dutch oven. Add the onion, garlic, jalapeno, and if using fresh anaheim peppers, to the pot and stir fry for about 5-7 minutes, releasing the flavor and softening up the vegetables. Stir in the tomatillos, then if using canned diced green chilis add those, lime juice, cumin, salt and pepper. Allow the sauce to simmer uncovered for at least an hour.
Transfer the sauce to a Vitamix or similar blender, add the cilantro, and blend until thoroughly chopped and mixed. This amount took 2 batches in the Vitamix to blend it all! Return the sauce to the dutch oven or to a large bowl and evaluate your consistency. Tomatillos can have a lot of water content! If you are happy with your product you are done, if it is too watery, return to the dutch oven and simmer uncovered for another hour or so to thicken.
Reserve what you will use for the week in a jar in the refrigerator, the remainder can be stored in the freezer in containers or plastic freezer bags. Oh the things you can do with this sauce - enchilada sauce, salsa for chips, pork salsa verde, serve over BBQ chicken or steak, with a breakfast burrito, or be creative and come up with your own ideas!
Enjoy!
