Last week, my 12yo offered to help me make a batch of salsa verde for a fundraiser contest. It was a fundraiser for scholarships, and I signed up to participate long before I realized that it would fall on the same week that I would be trying to finish a research paper (not to mention shortly after the attack at the Boston Marathon, the explosion in West, Texas and a shooting in a neighboring town that was too close to home, among myriad other stress-factors this week, which is why I’m just now getting around to posting the recipe).

We came up with a recipe that is a little sweet at first and then finishes with a slow burn. I would gauge it about a “Medium” on the salsa heat-index. 🙂 What a wonderful surprise to find out that our salsa raised ~$170 for scholarships and won the contest!!

I promised folks that I would share the recipe after I finished my paper … Hallelujah, I turned it in this morning! Woohoo! My semester is officially finished, which means that I have only ONE more “real” class to take this summer before beginning my dissertation in earnest this coming fall. I’m so excited that I can hardly think straight … or perhaps that’s the exhaustion. Whatever.

Without further ado, here’s the experimental recipe that my sous chef and I concocted:

Ingredients

• 10-12 tomatillos: stems removed & cut into quarters (we also scraped off some seeds to save & plant); peel off the papery shell but leave the skin
• 1 poblano pepper: stems removed, seeded & quartered lengthwise
• 1 sweet onion (will give a distinctive sweet taste … if you prefer an uber-hot salsa, you could sub regular yellow or white onion and experiment)
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 3-4 pinches of cilantro (I’m not a big fan of cilantro, so we didn’t use a whole lot, maybe 1/4 of the bunch)
• 1/2 cup white vinegar
• Sriracha sauce (or Cholula sauce would also be quite yummy, but we happened to have Sriracha on hand)
• 1 lime (or juice equivalent to 1/4 of a lime)

Blanch the tomatillos until they feel a bit soft when poked with a fork, but while the water is heating up, you can take care of the onions and poblano. Cut the onion into slivers and saute in olive oil until it starts to caramelize. In the meantime, put the poblano on a baking sheet and broil at 450 for about 3-4 min, until the skin starts to blacken — keep an eye on it, so it doesn’t burn.

Drain the tomatillos. Put the cilantro, tomatillos, poblano & onion in a blender with vinegar. Blend (we used the “mince” and “grind” settings) until well mixed. Squeeze juice from 1/4 of a lime (watch for seeds) & pulse to blend. Add 3-4 squirts of Sriracha sauce (to taste) &  pulse to blend.

Our batch made about 1 qt. Depending on the size of your tomatillos and onion, you may end up with a little more or less.

Enjoy! 🙂