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Tomatillo Salsa Verde

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This roasted tomatillo salsa verde recipe is easy to make and customize to your liking, and always tastes absolutely delicious!

My favorite recipe for homemade Salsa Verde! It's quick and easy to make in the blender or food processor, it's made with fresh tomatillo, onion, cilantro, lime juice, cumin and garlic, and it's the perfect sauce to go with all of your favorite Mexican food! | gimmesomeoven.com (Gluten-Free / Vegetarian / Vegan)

My tried-and-true favorite recipe for homemade salsa verde! ♡

Learn how to make homemade Salsa Verde with this easy recipe! | gimmesomeoven.com

Recipe Tips

Here are a few tips to always keep in mind when making tomatillo salsa verde:

  • Choose ripe tomatillos. Look for firm tomatillos with tight, dry husks and vibrant green color. Avoid ones that feel sticky or shriveled.
  • Keep an eye on the charring. Place your baking sheet 4 to 6 inches from the heat and broil for about 5 minutes per side, or until the tomatillos are nice and charred and blistered. But be sure keep a close eye so that they don’t overcook and burn.
  • Add a splash of water or broth if it’s too thick. Tomatillos can vary in juiciness. If your salsa is too thick, loosen it up with a bit of water or chicken/vegetable broth without diluting the flavor.
  • Adjust the heat to taste. Use more/less serrano or jalapeño peppers depending on your spice preference. The heat levels can vary significantly between fresh peppers, so if you’re sensitive to heat, I would always start with considerably less and you can always add more. Removing the seeds will also mellow the heat.
  • Balance the acidity with sweetness, if needed. If your tomatillos seem overly tart, a small pinch of sugar or honey can help to mellow their acidity.
  • Let it rest before serving. Give the salsa at least 30 minutes to rest so that the flavors can meld. It will taste even better after chilling for a few hours.

My favorite Homemade Salsa Verde recipe uses roasted tomatillo, garlic, cilantro, lime juice, onion, cumin and salt. So easy, and it's the perfect appetizer or accompaniment to your favorite Mexican food. | gimmesomeoven.com (Vegan / Vegetarian / GF)

Recipe Variations

Here are a few different salsa verde variations that you’re welcome to try:

  • Boiled salsa verde: Add the tomatillos, serrano, and garlic to a pot of boiling water. Simmer for 5–6 minutes, until tomatillos are pale and softened, then drain and blend with the remaining ingredients as instructed to make boiled salsa verde.
  • Raw salsa verde: To make salsa verde cruda, skip the roasting and just blend all of the ingredients raw for a more acidic salsa with bright tomatillo flavor.
  • Avocado salsa verde: Let the salsa cool to room temperature then blend in an avocado to make creamy avocado tomatillo salsa.
  • Pineapple salsa verde: Add 1/2 cup fresh pineapple chunks to the blender for a sweet-and-spicy twist.
  • Apple salsa verde: Add 1 Granny Smith apple (cored) to the blender for a fresh apple twist.

The BEST Salsa Verde recipe!! It's easy to make with roasted tomatillo, cilantro, onion, garlic, lime juice, and cumin...it only takes about 20 minutes to make...and it's the perfect appetizer with chips or accompaniment to your favorite Mexican food! | gimmesomeoven.com (Gluten-Free / Vegan / Vegetarian)

More Mexican Salsa Recipes To Try!

Looking for more great salsa recipes to try? Here are a few of our favorites:

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Salsa Verde

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star 4.9 from 53 reviews
  • Prep Time: 15 minutes
  • Cook Time: 10 minutes
  • Total Time: 25 minutes
  • Yield: 2 cups 1x

Description

Learn how to make delicious, authentic, and irresistible Mexican tomatillo salsa verde recipe with this easy recipe!


Ingredients

Scale
  • 1 pound fresh tomatillos, husked and rinsed
  • 1 serrano pepper (or jalapeño for milder heat), stem removed
  • 2 cloves garlic, unpeeled
  • 1/2 cup fresh cilantro leaves
  • 1/3 cup diced white onion
  • 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
  • 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin (optional)

Instructions

  1. Roast. Place the tomatillos, serrano, and garlic on a baking sheet. Broil for about 10 minutes, flipping halfway through, until charred and softened
  2. Blend. Carefully squeeze out the roasted garlic flesh into a blender (or food processor), discarding the peels. Add the tomatillos, serrano and all of their juices to the blender, along with the cilantro, onion, lime juice, salt, and cumin (if using). Blend until smooth or pulse for a more chunky consistency.
  3. Season. Taste and season with additional salt or lime juice, if needed.
  4. Chill and serve. Let the salsa chill in the fridge for at least an hour to allow flavors to meld. Serve and enjoy, or refrigerate in a sealed container for up to 5 days.

 

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112 comments on “Tomatillo Salsa Verde”

  1. yes, yes….I have so been wanting to try this. I think you’ve just convinced me!

  2. THANK YOU for such colorful photography and a great recipe and its variations in preparing (for the next neighborhood Salsa contest!) and the neat little stories…appreciate your sharing

  3. This stuff rocks!

    It took some searching to find tomatillos, but other than that this was so easy to throw together. When I first took a bite, the cilantro and hot peppers hit my nose and I thought I had made it too spicy, but then the sweet flavors of the tomatillos and onions (vidalia, in my case) kicked in and it never tasted overwhelmingly hot. I will definitely make this to serve with chips at my next party.

    This salsa also tends to act as an excellent expectorant and nasal decongestant if you’re sick and don’t want soup.

  4. Fact in Puebla no one roast the garlic and doesnt not add onion to the salsa , i was born in the state of puebla

  5. can this salsa be canned?

    • I’m pretty sure it can be frozen. I’ve been married to my husband for 32 years, who hails from Aguascalientes MX. He makes whatever salsa suits his fancy at the time in large batches, divides it into freezer bags with the date on it, and tries to use within 3 to 6 months.

  6. I like the idea of roasting everything!!!
    My mother just boiled them then placed them in a blender and used the boiled water, if the mixture was too thick, to thin it out for the blender.

  7. Oh my god is this great

  8. Made this just now. This is awesome! I used cast iron to dry roast everything. Also subbed the Serrano for two jalapeño peppers. This is for a dish I watched on TV last night. I’ll let you know how it turns out.
    Posted a pix on Facebook and tagged it  #gimmesomeoven 
    See what you think!
    Chris

    • Thank you Chris! Aren’t cast irons the best? So happy you enjoyed this, and I love your pic, it looks awesome! : D

  9. This is so freakin easy and I will NEVER buy store bought again!! I didnt have a mortar & pestle, but I used a Magic Bullet….still worked. heh.

  10. About how much (volume-wise) does this make? 2 cups? 

  11. Thank you for sharing that tip with us Nidia! :)

  12. My mom just boils in all and put it in a blender  Tastes pretty good. 

  13. loved the taste but how would you make it thicker  turned out a little thin.

  14. can I freeze this -have too many green tomatoes since I didn’t like the taste of the rise ones . I have made this before but I need to freeze.

  15. Anyone in the UK who can’t get tomatillos, they are so easy to grow if you have a greenhouse. Plant two plants as they need to pollinate each other, you’ll get loads. 

  16. Actually a question. Love good Mexican food but I am one of those poor souls that has an aversion to cilantro – not only tastes soapy and astringent but even smells that way to me. I can take it in small amounts but it really ruins good food for me if there is too much. Read that it’s a legitimate thing. Believe me, I am NOT a fussy eater! ? What can I use in its place without ruining the integrity of the dish? Maybe a small amount of cilantro and supplement the balance with ?what?

    • Leslie, you might try some Mexican oregano to supplement the cilantro. I haven’t seen it fresh (except growing wild in our local state park), just dried, so you’d want to reduce the amount to about ⅓ of the cilantro called for. Mexican oregano has (at least for me) a much nicer flavor than the standard Italian stuff. I feel badly for you that you can’t do cilantro.

  17. YUM!! I’ve always been more of a salsa verde person, generally prefer it to the red – except, in restaurants it is always hotter and my stomach can no longer handle a lot of spicy heat. I would make this with a disemboweled jalapeño. There’s something about the flavor combination of salsa verde that tastes like heaven to me (there aren’t many things to do that for me). I’m glad you brought this recipe to our attention.

  18. I just know salsa verde, Kayanya need to try ya …. thanks

  19. These tomatillos look amazing. I have never made salsa verde but will give this recipe a try :)

  20. This recipe looks great! Do you need to remove the charred tomatillo skin before adding it to the blender? thank you!

    • Thank you, Tracey, we hope you enjoy! And no, you don’t need to remove the skin before adding the tomatillos to the blender (just make sure to remove the husks before putting them in the oven).

  21. I live in England where it is impossible to find tomatillos.
    Is there any substitution for this recipe as it looks just delicious.
    Thank you.

    • Hi Ann! Oh no, that’s a bummer! :( You could try using green tomatillos (they would be the most similar thing you could substitute). W hope this helps!

  22. that sounds amazing!!! I need to make this

  23. Though I have my own Salsa Verde recipe, I will be trying yours soon, as I have loved everything I have made from your site – and like when I make mine, I will also be making a bigger batch for pork Chile Verde – Yum!!! For those of you who are having trouble finding tomatillos – I have found that markets/stores in areas of town that have a higher concentration of Latino families often have a variety of specialty items for Latino cooking – cheeses, salsas, produce, canned goods, tortillas, meat selection, etc.

    I also make mine FODMAP friendly by omitting the onion (traditional recipes don’t always call for it) and substituting garlic oil for the fresh garlic.

    • Thank you, Nikki, we hope you enjoy this one, and we’re so happy to hear you have loved other recipes from the blog! :)

  24. Easy, delicious and just the right amount of spice. Love It!!!

  25. This was incredibly easy and turned out fabulous! Serranos scare me (I’ve tried some store-bought salsa verdes where “medium” was like an “extra hot” to my taste buds!), but I went ahead and added one to the tomatillos… and surprisingly, I think I could handle at least one more! I’m saving this as a favorite recipe, for sure.

  26. Sooo easy and tasty. Heat varies by peppers.

  27. Can you can this recipe?

  28. Made this in the blender and loved it!!!

  29. Easy and tasty

  30. Just made this for taco night!!!! Wow!!! Delicious !!!

  31. It says cook time is 5 min at the top, yet you need to roast the tomatillos for 15 min. I’m not good at math but those don’t mesh. Recipe is delicious though

  32. This salsa is indeed delicious! I made a batch the same evening that I made your red salsa and was tempted to substitute it in the Chicken Enchilada recipe. Maybe next time. So easy to make and I actually had all the ingredients on hand. I froze mine after sneaking a few spoonsful. Yum!!

  33. Awesome recipe. Just finished making it and it tastes amazing, really simple to make too! Thanks so much!

  34. First of all looks amazing. Can you take out the seeds from the tomatoes and peppers? My hubby has a issue with his stomach and can’t have any kind of seeds. Makes recipes a challenge and time consuming. Thank you, love and going to try some new recipes.

  35. They don’t have tomatillo in my part of the world, could I sub green tomatoes with good results???

  36. I’m going to make this for the Mexican soup soon. Can’t wait!

  37. I made this recipe and it was good but a friend said to add avocado and wow what a great improvement .

  38. Very Good,

    • Was it supposed to be sweet? Maybe I did something wrong. I smothered it over burritos and I used parsley instead of cilantro.

  39. I made the salsa verda tonight and it is everything you said it was. Delish! I dipped and munch away on corn chip while I prepared to cook a piece of cod. Since cod can be somewhat bland, I decided to make a white sauce (butter, corn starch [gluten free], milk, salt and pepper) and add a small amount if the salsa verde and some parmesan cheese. The result was a wonderful compliment to the cod. Thanks you for sharing this salsa verde recipe.

  40. Delish! I roasted the tomatillos for about 23 mins and used a large partially seeded jalapeño. I loved the flavor without the cumin, so I didn’t add. I’ll be using cumin in the spicy black beans as part of my burrito bowl. The salsa verde will go on top along with some pepita vinaigrette. Best of all there will be plenty leftover for dipping some tortilla chips. Yum!

  41. This is delicious! And I mistakenly misread and didn’t roast the tomatillos first! I just blended them after peeling husk and it was still so fresh and delicious! Everyone loved it and it was gone!

  42. This is by far the best and easiest recipe I have come across. I roasted everything in my air fryer because it’s over 100 degrees here and I wasn’t about to fire up my oven. I used two jalapeños and more cilantro because we love cilantro. Thank you for a fabulous recipe.

  43. Love this recipe! I’ve tried canning versions of salsa verde but the lemon taste is overwhelming (but necessary when canning). Has anyone froze this recipe & found it was still similar in taste & texture after thawing?

    • I’m wondering the same thing. I was wanting to can this recipe due to excessive production in the garden!! Would love this answered.

  44. Oh, wow!! YUM!

  45. So easy to make and a very authentic taste! Thank you!

  46. I find that parchment paper works much better than foil, which tends ro scratch ope, defeating the purpose of keeping your roasting plan clean.
    This is especially true of tomatillos, which become very juicy when roasted. Try it, you’ll like it for many things!

  47. I made this before and was great. But I was wondering if I can can it to make more pints to keep? Let me know. Thanks Randy