Salsa Verde Asada
Salsa Verde Asada or Roasted Green Sauce is, as it sounds, a green chili sauce made with roasted fresh green chilies (jalapeno, serrano, Sandia), garlic, tomatillos, onion, and cilantro. This sauce, or a version thereof, is offered in almost every Mexican restaurant in the country. To ease spiciness, remove the seeds and pith from the chilies before adding them. Jalapenos are traditional, but serranos are also widely used. I prefer my chili Verde with spice, so I leave the seeds and pith. Char the ingredients before processing the sauce in a blender or traditional molcajete to bring full flavors to the salsa. When you remove roots from any pepper, always wash your hands thoroughly afterward to remove the chili oil. Do not touch your eyes or any sensitive skin. It will burn, and the pain will linger.
Green Tomato vs. Tomatillo
In this recipe, I’m adding 1/2 charred green tomato, which is optional. I have green tomatoes available to me this spring, so I experimented with adding them in. The taste and appearance were excellent. In recipes poorly translated from Spanish to English, a tomatillo is often referred to as a green tomato. However, tomatillos are not proper tomatoes. While they are both in the nightshade family, tomatillos are the fruit of a completely different plant and have a papery covering on the outside. Green tomatoes are unripened regular tomatoes. Both are very tart, but the green tomato can become sweeter when cooked.
A Word On Charring
An efficient way to char these vegetables is to split them in half and sear both sides simultaneously. You can and should remove the skins from the green chilies, but don’t spend too much time getting every little piece of charred skin off. A bit of charred skin left on will add to the rustic flavor. Additionally, store-bought fire-roasted chilies are available in most markets. These work great if you don’t want to go through the hassle of doing your own, but they are not always available (typically, they are found in the Mexican frozen food section of grocery stores). Do keep the charred skins on the onions. The charring adds excellent flavor! However, be sure to remove the papery husks from garlic after roasting the cloves.
Add Salsa Verde Asada to Savory Dishes
Salsa Verde Asada is great as an ingredient in Green Chili Pork Stew, Tortilla Soup, Molcajete Guacamole, and many more.
This version of the salsa verde has 1/2 a charred green tomato (non-traditional) added. As you can see, the sauce is a bit thicker with vibrant green color. Try the traditional version first, so you have a baseline of the taste.
Remove half of all of the seeds to make a milder version of salsa verde. Traditionally this sauce is pretty hot, and most Mexican restaurants will skip this step. It’s up to you to go all-in or to cut back on the heat level.
Add a little oil to coat the ingredients and char under a broiler. This image is the traditional mix of ingredients, but trying different types of green chili will help you define your flavors. Notice that I’ve left the skins on the garlic. The husks will help protect the garlic as it cooks and softens.
I like to flip the onions and the tomatillos to get even charring on each side. Here I’m experimenting with the addition of fresh green tomato. The result was delicious since it lightly sweetened the final salsa. Peel the jalapeno garlic, green tomato (if applicable), and tomatillo, though it’s not essential to get all the skin off. Leaving a portion of the charred skin on will add a great flavor.
Rough chop 1/3 bunch of cilantro or 1/2 cup loosely chopped
Measure out the water.
Add all of the ingredients to a blender and process until smooth-about 5-8 seconds.
Add the juice of half a lime.
Salsa Verde Asada is fantastic as a dip, on eggs or tacos, and as an ingredient in other savory dishes.
Salsa Verde Asada or Roasted Green Sauce
Equipment
- Blender
- chef knife
- cutting board
- roasting pan safe for broiler
- lemon/lime squeezer (optional)
Ingredients
- 2 whole jalapenos or 3 serrano chilis charred and peeled
- 5 large cloves of garlic, charred and peeled
- 1 whole onion, charred white or yellow
- 5 whole tomatillos peeled and charred
- ½ whole green tomato, charred and peeled (optional/non-traditional)
- ½ cup cilantro, chopped
- ¾ cup water
- ½ whole lime juice
- 1 tsp salt
Instructions
- Preheat the broiler in the oven and move the oven rack to just under the heating element. The frame should be close to the heating element, but the ingredients should not be touching it. If they are, move the rack to a lower option.
- Place a sheet of aluminum foil on a safe baking surface. The foil will allow for quick clean-up.
- Cut the stems off the fresh green chilies. Salsa Verde is traditionally a little spicy, but if this is a problem, you can remove half of the seeds or all of them according to your taste.
- Prepare the onions by cutting off the root and top end, then halve into two large pieces.
- Break a whole garlic bulb down to individual cloves. Leave the skins on to protect the cloves and allow them to get soft during the charring process.
- Remove the papery husk from the tomatillos.
- Leave the tomatoes whole and drizzle all of the ingredients with a small amount of olive or vegetable oil.
- Once the broiler is up to temperature, place the ingredients in the oven and check often. The process of charring will happen quickly in most ovens (just under 10 minutes). Keep an eye on the oven.
- Once the ingredients are well charred, remove them from the oven and allow the items to cool for about 5 minutes. Next, remove most of the skins from the chilies and the garlic.
- Set up a blender and add all of the ingredients. Process until smooth. Lastly, add a pinch of salt to suit your taste.