Salsa Verde Asada or Roasted Green Sauce
Servings 4 cups
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.