Recipe: Taqueria Salsa Verde

My husband & I are kinda taco snobs. I mean, we dig the flour tortillas with seasoned ground beef and all the fixin's from time to time but taco night at our house means something a bit different than an Old El Paso Taco Kit. (Not that there's anything wrong with that. I've downed many a crispy corn shell loaded with cheddar, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, salsa, hot sauce, sour cream and...oh yeah...meat!)



These are our taco night rules:

1. The tortillas must be corn and not fried.
   
2. The meat needs to be grilled, braised or stewed. In other words, no ground meat.
3. The toppings must be fresh, simple and limited.

Usually the toppings for our beef (steak) tacos include lime, cilantro and vinegar soaked onions. Maybe some hot sauce. Tonight however we had some tomatillos from our CSA that were just asking to become a salsa. Mind you now, salsa verde isn't usually my favorite. Usually it's kinda bland and not terribly spicy. The only use I usually have for it is Spinach and Mushroom Enchiladas.

But this salsa verde?

Totally worthy of a taco. And while the salsa verde-beef combo isn't traditional, it is delicious. Bonus that the salsa is easy peasy to put together and tastes like your favorite market taco stall in Mexico.

Ingredients:

1 lb tomatillos
1/2 onion
1/2-1 garlic clove
1/2 c cilantro or parsley (Not a cilantro fan? Use parsley. It can give that "fresh" herb-y taste too)
3 hot peppers (I used our cayenne from the garden. De-seed if you are so inclined.)
1 Tbsp lime juice (It's OK if you use bottled. I promise not to tell!)
Pinch of salt

Instructions:

1. Unhusk the tomatillos & put in a medium sauce pan. Cover with water. Bring to a boil & cook for 5 min. Remove cooked tomatillos to cool.
2. Put the rest of the ingredients into a blender/food processor. And in tomatillos. Puree until the consistency you like.

And that, mis amigos, is *it*. You can also cook the tomatillos by roasting, but it's summer & I'm not turning on the oven for anything other than pizza or cake. Seriously.