Tomatillo Pasilla Salsa
Tomatillos are perhaps most famously used for making salsa verde, the classic green salsa. But trading out the fresh green chiles for some dried pasilla peppers creates a rich brown salsa with a deeper, slightly earthy flavor profile. Great as a dip for tortilla chips, or as a sauce for tacos, nachos, enchiladas, or anything else you enjoy salsa with.This recipe gluten-free, dairy-free, and vegan.
Servings: 6 cups
Ingredients
- 1¼ lb tomatillos
- 1 white onion
- 2 pasilla chilies dried
- 4 cloves garlic
- 15 sprigs cilantro
- salt to taste
- water
- 2 tbsp oil avocado or olive
Instructions
- Remove husks from tomatillos. Rinse.
- Cut the onion into large pieces. Remove stems from chilies and tear into pieces.
- Place tomatillos, onion, chilies and garlic in a large pot. Fill the pot with water until the water is ¼" below the top of the vegetables. (About 4 cups)
- Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer. Simmer for 10 minutes.
- Pour contents of the pot into a blender. Add cilantro. Blend until smooth.
- Wipe out the inside of the pot. Add 2 tbsp oil and heat over medium heat. Pour in a small amount of the blended mixture (about ¼ cup) and cook for about 1 minute.
- Pour remaining mixture into pot. Bring to a simmer and let cook for about 20-30 minutes or until desired consistency is reached.
- Remove from heat and stir in salt to taste.
Notes
- Dried pasilla chiles are available at Mexican grocery stores and in the Hispanic section of many large supermarkets. They are also available online.
- Fresh pasilla peppers are chocolate brown in color and rarely available for sale outside of Mexico. Some regions of the US sell fresh green poblano peppers under the name "pasilla", but these are a very different chile. Poblano peppers do not make a good substitute in this recipe (you will end up with a very mild salsa verde instead).
- Pasillas are moderately hot, on par with jalapeno. If that sounds too spicy for you, remove the seeds before adding the the peppers to the pot.
- We REALLY like this salsa made with yellow Queen of Malinalco tomatillos. They are a bit of a rarity, but worth the effort to get a hold of (and grow like mad in the garden, if you have room for them). If you can't get them, but want a small hint of what the difference is, make this recipe with regular supermarket tomatillos and add the juice of 1 lime and a Tbs or 2 of sugar.