The original recipe for this tomatillo-avocado sauce called for mashing the ingredients by hand with a mortar and pestle and mixing in the chopped avocado and the cilantro at the end so that they keep their separate character in a coarse-textured sauce. Do it this way or follow an unorthodox approach that I’ve grown fond of, puréeing everything together very smoothly in a food processor or blender.
Photo by Alex Uballez
Tomatillo-Avocado Sauce (Salsa verde con aguacate)
Whether you are using mortar and pestle or a machine, most of the process is the same.
Ingredients
- 2 cloves garlic coarsely chopped
- 1½ teaspoons salt or to taste
- 1 small white onion coarsely chopped
- 2-3 or to taste fresh serrano or jalapeño chiles, coarsely chopped
- 6-8 average-sized tomatillos about ½ pound, husks removed, cut into quarters
- 1 ripe Mexican-type avocado Hass or Fuerte
- 8-10 sprigs cilantro
Instructions
- In a food processor, blender, or heavy mortar, process or pound the garlic and salt to a paste.
- Add the onion, chiles, and tomatillos. Either pulse to make a slightly chunky paste or pound and mash the ingredients together as fine as possible.
- Scoop out the avocado flesh. For a smooth machine-finished purée, add it to the other ingredients with the cilantro and process very fine. If using the hand method, chop the avocado flesh fine and mash it into the onion-tomatillo mixture; chop the cilantro and stir in. Or for a compromise version, pour the machine-processed onion-tomatillo mixture into a bowl and mix in the chopped avocado flesh along with the cilantro.
- Serve as soon as possible, certainly within an hour.
Nutrition
Calories: 45kcalCarbohydrates: 4gProtein: 1gFat: 3gSaturated Fat: 1gSodium: 352mgPotassium: 184mgFiber: 2gSugar: 1gVitamin A: 184IUVitamin C: 6mgCalcium: 9mgIron: 1mg
