I grew three tomatillo plants this year, which was probably two and a half too many, and have been trying to figure out what to do with all the fruits. After a bunch of trial runs at salsa verde, I finally came up with a good/easy recipe:
Husk and rinse 1 pound of tomatillos. Place them directly under your broiler for 4 minutes, flip them over, repeat for another 4 minutes on the other side. Put the tomatillos + 1 diced onion + some chopped chiles (I used three serrano chiles) + two garlic cloves + juice of one lime + 1/4 cup cilantro in a blender. Then salt to taste.
4 Likes
WOW! Either that’s a little bowl, or those are ginormous tomatillos! I absolutely adore green salsa, saving your recipe. Thanks, SMC!
1 Like
Love the meow meow on the table! Gorgeous! I have one that I hand raised who now thinks she is a human and sit at the table wondering where her plate is. lol
Thank you for the recipe. Sounds delicious.
1 Like
I buy a roasted tomatillo salsa and IMHO it is hands down the best salsa around. I’m going to grow a purple one next year, just one plant though!!
Okay, so what brand do you buy, Drew? Inquiring minds want to know! 
(best I could do, no green tomato emoticon)
Come over for drinks tonight about 6pm and bring the salsa! Am definitely saving your recipe. Looks great. Thanks so much!
I grew both green and purple from Victory Seed. The green ones were about twice the size of the purple.
Did the purple have a different flavor?
It’s a local brand, We have these Meijer stores here, and they make it. Sorry about that! Look for roasted. i have had others, and the roasted salsas were superior. The Meijer version was the best one, amazing really. The store brands are the cheap brands! This recipe though sounds great! Thanks, forgot to mention that!
I would tell them, they are a great seed company! You will get credit or a refund. Mine are from Croatia directly sent here. It’s supposed to be a Russian variety.
Here is a description
Physalis-Purple Tomatillo SLIVOVYI DZHEM-PLUM JAM Russian Heirloom 75-85 days. Rare purple tomatillo with
exceptional appearance and taste. Deep violet skin color bleeds into flesh with green centers. Much sweeter than
the green types with a musky flavor that is superb when eaten right from the plant. Harvest after the papery husk
has split, when fruits are the size of a golf ball and skin has turned a deep purple color. This unusual deep
purple tomatillo makes an ideal salsa with its sweet tart flavor.
SMC, I also planted purple tomatillos from the same company and they were green! I do not mind though because they were still very prolific. I will plant them next year, they require a lot less work then tomatoes.
I also made salsa this year from tomatillos and I added them into the blackberry jam. Tomatillos have a lot of natural pectin and their seeds are so small that they go almost unnoticeable. I just blended tomatillos and then stewed them for 30-40 min until the mix thickened and then I added blended peppers for salsa or seedless blackberry pulp for jam.
Drew, the only Russian tomatillo variety that I knew from childhood was yellow when ripe tomatillo named Konditerskiy. The name means that it is good in sweet goods. It was relatively early, since it had time to ripen in the cold climate. The big yellow fruits had similar taste as ground cherries, but somewhat less sweet. But it was a lot sweeter than the ripe green tomatillos I have this year. I tried to find the seeds of this variety, but I had no luck so far.
By the way, you need two tomatillo plant for cross pollination.
The purple I have is different from the one at Baker Creek, also Territorial sells them. The one I have has a purple skin, but is not purple inside, some bleeding of purple color. I have never heard of them needing cross pollination, how can it be an heirloom? It has to be self fertile to be an heirloom. Here’s the same type I have from a different seller. i got mine as stated from Croatia.
The seller I used is well known and has introduced many Russian heirloom tomatoes and peppers into the American market. I trust what he says.
Sounds like the Polish yellow
The purple was a little sweeter. My plants did rather poorly and don’t know why. It was my first time growing them and the plants turned yellow and died about the time fruit first started to ripen. We had extreme heat and drought this summer and this may have been the problem.
I also grew ground cherries and they made a great pie using this recipe http://www.tastebook.com/recipes/1599723-Ground-Cherry-Pie
The ground cherries also died mid summer, but they produced a lot before that.
I grew purples years ago and they were wonderful. I could be wrong but I thought they came from pine tree or seeds of change. The yellows were called pineapple tomatillos but that was 10 years ago probably. I have never grown greens. I was feeling adventurous that year and grew some gherkins to and I don’t mean cucumbers though they we’re like them in a way. Thanks for the recipe you have inspired me to grow greens now. Btw I ate the purples fresh as well.
That salsa verde looks great, and an easy recipe. Most of the commercial salsas and sauces have way too much salt for my liking. I may need to do a tomatillo garden trial soon. Thanks for sharing!
1 Like