Time to Try and Taste Tomatillos

I receive boxes of produce from Imperfect Produce every two weeks. (Imperfect Produce is a company that sells produce that would not be accepted by a grocery store. Reasons for this would be size, scarring, surplus, asymmetry, lack of a consumer market, or discoloration.) A few days prior to shipment, I receive a notification that I can review the list of the items which will be included in the box and make changes if necessary.  There is a list of items on the site from which I can choose what I may want to add or remove. I will often choose types of foods that I would normally not consider.  In this last box, I included tomatillos. I did not have any idea as to what to do with them, but, they did not appear or sound scary, and with the internet at my side, I figured that I could find some options on how to prepare them.

I had forgotten that I had ordered them.  When my produce shipment arrived, I initially thought that the bag of tomatillos was a bag of Brussels sprouts!   (I had ordered Brussels sprouts in the past.) Fortunately, I was able to recall what they were, making it much easier to look for information on how to prepare them.

I found some information on-line that provided a nice introduction to this particular fruit. If you would like even more information, click here.

If you are curious as to why the tomatillos are sticky, feel free to read this as well. It is quite interesting.

While I was searching for information about tomatillos, “salsa verde” appeared many times.  That was my hint that perhaps I should try that. It seemed like a basic, popular way to use tomatillos.

This is what I used as my recipe “guide.”

In a nutshell, I broiled the tomatillos, approximately 5 minutes per side. While they were broiling, I cut up some onion and cilantro. I threw those, plus some lime juice and salt, into my blender.  I left out the jalapenos; I don’t do very well with spicy food. Once the tomatillos were done, I tossed them into my blender, and then I pulsed the whole combination until it looked like soupy salsa.  Because I did not start with the number of tomatillos as mentioned in the recipe, I somewhat fudged the amounts of everything else to seem “appropriate.” This did thicken up in the refrigerator due to the pectin in the tomatillos.

Honestly, I think I grew to like the final product the more I ate it, but I was not in love with it.  This won’t be helpful, but it had an unusual aftertaste. (You can see why I am not a food writer. I don’t know how to describe the aftertaste.  I promise to work on my food and taste description skills.) My husband (who also has never eaten salsa verde) agreed with this assessment. Neither of us could compare it to other salsa verde recipes. Usually at Mexican restaurants, the salsa verde (which I now understand is probably made with tomatillos–I never knew!) is too spicy for us. I do intend to try tomatillos again and play around with the recipe to see how I can tweak it.  Because I did not start with a large number of tomatillos, I did not have a lot of salsa with which I could experiment. I will try again! I am not intimidated by the tomatillos now that I know more about them. I continue to be inspired to include at least one vegetable in my produce box that I do not (yet) know how to prepare.  I promise to continue to share those experiences with you, too!

P.S. If you are interested in trying Imperfect Produce, comment or send me a message via my “Beckie Lives and Learns” Facebook account. (You can find a link to the Facebook page at the top of this page.) I can provide a referral link which will allow us each to get a discount. (The link is not because I have a blog. Any customer can get a referral discount.) This is not currently available everywhere in the United States.