Tomatillo Sauce

Creamy Tomatillo Sauce Recipe

We make a lot of salsa verde in the Madness kitchen. It's one of Patty's very favorite salsas, so versatile, so perfect on so many dishes. I wanted something different, however, for another dish I was making. I wanted salsa verde, but NOT quite salsa verde. I needed another component.

Call it an experiment, but I decided to combine my favorite salsa verde recipe with another sauce recipe that I love, a creamy jalapeno sauce, which is a classic Mexican and Tex-Mex recipe.

The experiment was a BIG SUCCESS. I'm not getting creative here, and I'm just calling it Tomatillo Sauce, though it's very much a tomatillo salsa as well, and I think it'll be one you'll want to add to your recipe collection.

Let's talk about how to make tomatillo sauce, shall we?

Tomatillo Sauce Ingredients 

Gather up the following to make your tomatillo sauce:

• 2 pounds tomatillos, husked and rinsed
• 3 jalapeno peppers
• 2-3 serrano peppers (or use 6 jalapenos total to tame the heat)
• 1 medium red onion
• 4-6 garlic cloves
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
• ¼ cup white wine vinegar
• Juice from 1 lime
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin
• Salt to taste
• ¼ cup neutral oil, like corn oil, avocado oil, or neutral vegetable oil (or more to taste - olive oil is OK to use, if desired, though it has a stronger flavor)

TOMATILLO NOTE: Be sure to use actual tomatillos for this recipe, and not green tomatoes. Green tomatoes will work, but they do not have the same flavor. Tomatillos are a completely different ingredient.

If you want to use up your green tomatoes, try this green tomato chutney recipe instead.

How to Make Tomatillo Sauce - the Recipe Steps

First, set your oven to broil.

Slice the tomatillos and peppers in half, then set them onto a roasting pan or baking sheet.

Slice the onion into thick strips and set them onto the roasting pan, along with the garlic.

Roast the tomatillos and other ingredients for 20 minutes, or until the skins char and puff up. Remove from heat and cool slightly. Peel off the skins and discard.

Squeeze the roasted garlic from the skins.

Add the tomatillos, peppers, onion and garlic to a food processor or blender along with the cilantro, vinegar, lime juice, cumin and salt.

Process until smooth.

With the blender or food processor running, slowly drizzle the oil into the mixture to let it emulsify to your desired consistency. Beautiful green salsa!

It should take about 5 minutes. The sauce will thicken up slightly.

Notice the color difference. The color lightens up quite a bit, and the sauce becomes much more creamy from the emulsification process.

Serve as desired!

Looks wonderful, doesn't it? You'll never want store bought again.

The Secret is in the Oil - Emulsification

You might think to use a dairy product or perhaps an avocado to achieve creaminess in this sauce, but the real secret is oil.

When you process with the oil drizzling into the salsa verde, you are essentially emulsifying the mixture until it becomes very creamy. Emulsification is essentially the mixture of 2 or more liquids that normally don't mix, like oil and vinegar.

They don't mix easily, but with enough whisking force, the mixture forms and becomes creamy, like a balsamic vinaigrette. 

Like Salsa Verde - But Not Quite Salsa Verde

This recipe uses all of the same ingredients as a salsa verde, and basically follows all of the same cooking directions. The only difference is that we're drizzling in oil to form an emulsion.

In that way, it really is much like a salsa verde or tomatillo salsa, and you'll have a similar flavor profile here, however, you'll notice how different it is in creaminess and texture, as well as mouth feel and some flavor differences because of the oil.

Try Some of My Other Popular Sauce Recipes

• Roasted Jalapeno Pepper Sauce
• Roasted Red Jalapeno Pepper Hot Sauce
• Pineapple-Jalapeno Hot Sauce
• Jalapeno-Honey-Bourbon BBQ Sauce
• Spicy Basil Cream Sauce
• Creamy Sriracha Mayo