Short version: husk and rinse the tomatillos, char them under the broiler, then blend with chile, onion, garlic, and cilantro.
Jump to Recipe ↓There are two entirely different sauces called salsa verde. The Italian one is a herb sauce with parsley, capers, and anchovy, served with boiled meat. The Mexican one, which is what almost everyone searching for it wants, is a green sauce built on tomatillos.
Tomatillos are not green tomatoes. They are a different plant, they come wrapped in a papery husk, and they are naturally tart in a way that gives the sauce its character without any added acid. Peel the husk off and the fruit underneath is coated in a sticky resin, which rinses away in seconds and which nobody warns you about the first time.
The one real decision is how you cook them. Raw gives you a sharp, bright, grassy salsa. Boiled gives you a mild, smooth, mellow one. Charred gives you the smoky, slightly sweet version that most taquerias serve, and it is the one this recipe is built around.
What Your Board Looks Like
Very little knife work here compared to a pico, because most of it goes in the blender. What the board is doing is holding sticky, wet tomatillos while you husk and halve them, which is a grip problem more than a cutting one.
About a cup and a half, and it is mostly tomatillo husks, which are dry, papery, and light enough to blow off a board like onion skin. Add chile stems, onion skins, garlic papers, and cilantro stem bottoms. Husks are the awkward part: there are a lot of them and they cling to wet hands.
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Photo by Elena Aellgie on Pexels
Salsa Verde (Tomatillo)
Charred tomatillo salsa, the version most taquerias serve. Makes about 2.5 cups.
Ingredients
- 500 gtomatilloshusked, rinsed, and halved
- 2 to 3serrano chilesstemmed and halved
- 1/2white onioncut into thick wedges
- 3garlic clovesunpeeled
- 1 large bunchcilantroleaves and thin stems
- 1 tspfine sea saltplus more to taste
- 1/2 tspsugaroptional, if the tomatillos are very sharp
- 2 tbspwateronly if it needs loosening
Method
- Husk and rinse the tomatillosPeel the papery husks off and put them straight in the bin. Then rinse the fruit under warm water and rub the surface with your fingers until the sticky film is gone. That film is bitter and it is the reason some homemade salsa verde tastes off.
- Arrange everything on a trayHalved tomatillos cut side down, chiles, onion wedges, and unpeeled garlic on a foil-lined tray. Cut side down matters: it is what gets the blistered, blackened patches that give the sauce its smoke.
- Char under a hot broilerEight to twelve minutes under a very hot broiler, until the tomatillo skins are blistered and blackened in patches and collapsing. Pull the garlic out early if it is coloring fast. You want char marks, not evenly burnt vegetables.
- Peel the garlic and let it all cool brieflySqueeze the garlic out of its skins. Give the tray five minutes so you are not blending scalding liquid, which will build pressure in a sealed jug.
- Blend with the cilantro and saltEverything from the tray, including any juices, plus the raw cilantro and the salt. Pulse rather than run it continuously: salsa verde should have a slight texture, not be a smooth puree. Add water only if it is too thick to pour.
- Taste and adjustTomatillos vary a lot in sharpness. If it is puckering, add the half teaspoon of sugar. If it is flat, more salt. If it is too hot, blend in one more charred tomatillo rather than diluting with water.
Make It Ahead
Salsa verde keeps better than a raw salsa like pico, because the tomatillos have been cooked.
Getting It Right
Rinse the sticky coating off
Tomatillos secrete a resin under the husk that tastes bitter and soapy. Warm water and a rub with your fingers takes it off in about ten seconds per fruit. This is the single most common reason a homemade salsa verde tastes wrong, and almost no recipe mentions it.
Choose your method by what you want
Raw, or cruda, is sharp, bright, and grassy, and takes five minutes. Boiled is mild, smooth, and mellow, and is what a lot of home cooks in Mexico make on a weeknight. Charred, or asada, is smoky and slightly sweet and is what most restaurants serve. They are all correct; they are just three different sauces.
Add the cilantro raw, at the end
Cilantro under a broiler turns black and bitter within a minute. It goes into the blender uncooked, along with its thin stems, which carry more flavor than the leaves. If you are making this ahead, it is worth blending in half the cilantro and stirring the rest through fresh.
Pulse, do not puree
Running the blender continuously gives you a thin, foamy, uniformly green liquid. Short pulses leave some texture and keep the color darker and more appetizing. It should coat a chip, not run off it.
Upgrade Your Prep Workflow: The ROO Bundle
Tomatillo husks are the specific problem with this recipe. Five hundred grams of tomatillos produces a large volume of dry, papery husk that behaves exactly like onion skin: it goes everywhere, it clings to wet hands, and it does not sweep neatly. Meanwhile the board is slick from rinsed tomatillos. The ROO Mat grips the counter so the board stays planted while you halve wet fruit, and the built-in 7-cup pouch gives the husks somewhere to go the moment they come off. The Bundle pairs the mat with a 13.75 inch by 9.75 inch rubberwood board and a reusable storage bag.
Upgrade Your Prep Workflow: Get the ROO Bundle
Somewhere for a large pile of papery husks to go immediately.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What are the ingredients in salsa verde?
In the Mexican version: tomatillos, green chiles, white onion, garlic, cilantro, salt, and sometimes a little lime. The Italian sauce of the same name is completely different, made from parsley, capers, anchovy, garlic, and olive oil. If a recipe calls for tomatillos, it is the Mexican one.
What's the secret to a good green salsa?
Rinsing the sticky film off the tomatillos after husking them. That coating is bitter, most people do not know it is there, and it is behind most disappointing homemade salsa verde. After that, charring rather than boiling is what gives you the flavor you get in restaurants.
What salsa verde do Mexican restaurants use?
Usually a charred or roasted tomatillo salsa, with serrano rather than jalapeno, blended coarsely and served at room temperature. Some use a raw version for tacos where they want brightness. Very few use the boiled one commercially, because it is the mildest of the three.
Are tomatillos just green tomatoes?
No, they are a different plant in the same family. Tomatillos grow inside a papery husk, are firmer, and are naturally tart in a way tomatoes are not. Substituting green tomatoes gives you a sauce that is sweeter, softer, and missing the acidity that defines salsa verde, so you would need to add lime to compensate.
How long does salsa verde last?
Five days refrigerated in a sealed jar, and three months frozen. It keeps considerably better than a raw salsa such as pico de gallo because the tomatillos, onion, and chiles have all been cooked. The color fades towards olive after a couple of days without affecting the taste.
Husk them, rinse them properly, char them hard, and add the cilantro raw. Salsa verde is a twenty minute sauce that keeps for five days and freezes for three months, which makes it one of the highest-return things you can make on a Sunday.