Tomatillos with Salsa Recipe

One of the new things we are growing this year is tomatillos.  They look a bit like green tomatoes, but taste completely different and have a totally different growth habit.  Here's a tomatillo plant.

They have tiny yellow flowers.

The tomatillo fruits grow inside "husks" that dangle from the underside of the plant stems.

They are ready to pick when the fruit fills the husk and the husk begins to split.

I picked a bunch last week.  

Once the husk is removed, they look like small green tomatoes.

But, inside they don't look like tomatoes.  They look like this.

I made salsa with these.  The recipe I used is easy and requires only a few ingredients. 

Ingredients

1 pound tomatillos

3 cloves garlic (unpeeled)

1 jalapeno (more or less, depending on your taste)

1 onion, chopped

1/2 cup loosely packed cilantro

juice of 1/2 a lime

Salt to taste

Directions

Put the tomatillos, garlic cloves and jalapeno on a small sheet pan and roast at 425 degrees until they are soft.  They will char on top.  This is good and gives the salsa nice flavor.  Turn them a couple of times to get a good char on both sides.

When the tomatillos are soft and mushy, remove from oven and put in a food processor.  Peel the garlic cloves and remove stem and seeds from the jalapeno.  Put them in the food processor with the tomatillos.  Finally, add the onion and cilantro.

Run the food processor until everything is thoroughly chopped.  Add the lime juice and salt.  Pulse until incorporated.  Put in a small sauce pan, bring to a simmer and cook for about 15 minutes.  Cool.  Adjust seasonings to taste.  

Enjoy!