Avocado Tomatillo Salsa Recipe - How to Make Avocado Tomatillo Salsa (2024)

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4.88 from 8 votes

By Hank Shaw

June 17, 2021 | Updated March 18, 2022

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Avocado tomatillo salsa is neither guacamole or Mexican salsa verde. It’s its own thing, and it is the best of both worlds.

Tart from the tomatillos, creamy from the avocado, and as picante or mild as you want it. I vary the heat according to my mood, and you can, too. This is a great salsa for fish tacos or arrachera tacos.

Avocado Tomatillo Salsa Recipe - How to Make Avocado Tomatillo Salsa (2)

First things first: Avocado tomatillo salsa is not guacamole because that salsa has no tomatillos, nor is is a traditional Mexican salsa verde because that doesn’t have avocado. Instead, this is a sort of hybrid.

It can be smooth or chunky, and either completely raw or a mix of raw and cooked ingredients.

You’ll either toss everything in a blender and call it a day — I do this on hot days — or roast the tomatillos and chiles and add that to the raw ingredients in the blender. If you want a more textured salsa, crush everything in a molcajete or mortar and pestle, or chop fine and muddle it all up in a steel bowl with a spoon.

My favorite way to make avocado tomatillo salsa is to use roasted green chiles like a Hatch (Anaheim) or poblano, roasted tomatillos and lots of fresh avocado, cilantro and lime juice. I like garlic so I add a raw clove, but you can roast it if you want, or leave out the garlic entirely.

Avocado Tomatillo Salsa Recipe - How to Make Avocado Tomatillo Salsa (3)

Some variations and ingredient notes for avocado tomatillo salsa that will help you out:

  • You want avocados that are fully ripe, even with a few blemishes. Underripe, hard avocados are not good here. Use those in something like my caldo tlalpeño recipe.
  • Tomatillos can be of whatever variety, either the big supermarket ones, or my favorite, the little tomatillos de milpa. I grow them, but you can find these little guys at most Latin markets.
  • Ditto for the green chiles. I prefer hot Hatch chiles, roasted by hand. Poblanos are my second choice. But any roasted green chile will do, even canned ones. Don’t want to roast chiles? Skip them and use hot green chiles instead — anything from jalapenos to serranos or even green chiltepins or pequins if you are a hot head.
  • Roasting the garlic with the tomatillos and chiles mellows it out, so if you don’t like raw garlic, do this instead. Roasting will let you use more garlic, too.
  • I like this with green onions, but you can use chopped white onion if that’s what you have.
  • You can vary things up by using alternate herbs instead of cilantro like pipicha, papaloquelites, huacatay, hoja santa or even epazote. Each will give you a different effect. If you have access to culantro, that will taste almost exactly like cilantro and is in fact native to Central America.

I mostly use avocado tomatillo salsa on chips as a snack, but as I mentioned it is great on fish or lobster tacos, carne asada or basically anything you’d like. I would pair this with a hot salsa like my salsa de chile de arbol or my salsa morita, so people have a choice. And if you are roasting vegetables anyway, go ahead and make my fire roasted salsa, too.

Once made, avocado tomatillo salsa will keep a few days in the fridge. Cover the salsa directly with plastic wrap to keep it from discoloring. Serve at room temperature or a little cooler.

4.88 from 8 votes

Avocado Tomatillo Salsa

This is a great salsa for chips, or, along with some other spicier salsas, great for tacos, sopes or burritos, too.

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Course: Appetizer, Condiment, Sauce

Cuisine: Mexican

Servings: 6 servings

Author: Hank Shaw

Prep Time: 30 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 15 minutes minutes

Total Time: 45 minutes minutes

Ingredients

  • 5 large tomatillos or a dozen small ones, husked and halved
  • 2 Hatch chiles, or Anaheim or poblano chiles
  • 6 green onions, roughly chopped
  • 2 or 3 avocados, pitted and skins removed
  • 1 or 2 unpeeled garlic cloves (see below)
  • 1/3 cup chopped cilantro
  • Lime juice and salt to taste

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 425°F as you are husking the tomatillos and chopping the other ingredients. Don't mess with the avocados just yet.

  • When the oven is hot, put the halved tomatillos and the chiles on a baking sheet and roast until the tomatillos have some blackening, and the chile skins are well blackened on all sides. The tomatillos may take less time than the chiles. If you want roasted garlic, add this with the chiles and tomatillos and remove when partially blackened. All this should take about 20 minutes or so.

  • ALTERNATE METHOD: You can char the chiles directly on a gas flame or grill. I prefer this method, but it involves constantly moving the chiles to evenly blacken.

  • When things are well charred, put the tomatillos in a blender, peel the garlic and put the cloves in the blender, and remove the skin, stem and seeds of the chiles and put the chiles in the blender, too. Add the cilantro, green onions and avocado to the blender, along with some salt and about 1 tablespoon of lime juice. (NOTE: If you like raw garlic, you can skip the roasting step and just add a peeled clove right to the blender.)

  • Puree everything and add more salt or lime juice to taste.

  • ALTERNATE METHOD: You can make this a raw salsa by skipping all the cooking steps and simply pureeing everything in the blender. This takes seconds and is great for making this salsa on a hot day.

Video

Notes

Variations and Keys to Success

  • You want fully ripe avocados, even with a few blemishes. Underripe, hard avocados are not good here.
  • Tomatillos can be either the big supermarket ones, or the little tomatillos de milpa.
  • I prefer hot Hatch chiles, roasted by hand. Poblanos are my second choice. But any roasted green chile will do, even canned ones. Don't want to roast chiles? Skip them and use anything from jalapenos to serranos or even green chiltepins or pequins.
  • Roasting garlic with the tomatillos and chiles mellows it, so if you don't like raw garlic, do this instead.
  • I use green onions, but you can use chopped white onion.
  • You can vary things by using alternate herbs instead of cilantro like pipicha, papaloquelites, huacatay, hoja santa or even epazote. If you have access to culantro, that will taste almost exactly like cilantro.

Nutrition

Calories: 287kcal | Carbohydrates: 18g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 25g | Saturated Fat: 4g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 3g | Monounsaturated Fat: 16g | Sodium: 65mg | Potassium: 932mg | Fiber: 13g | Sugar: 3g | Vitamin A: 457IU | Vitamin C: 25mg | Calcium: 34mg | Iron: 1mg

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

Tried this recipe? Tag me today!Mention @huntgathercook or tag #hankshaw!

Categorized as:
Appetizers and Snacks, Featured, How-To (DIY stuff), Mexican, Recipe

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About Hank Shaw

Hey there. Welcome to Hunter Angler Gardener Cook, the internet’s largest source of recipes and know-how for wild foods. I am a chef, author, and yes, hunter, angler, gardener, forager and cook. Follow me on Instagram and on Facebook.

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Avocado Tomatillo Salsa Recipe - How to Make Avocado Tomatillo Salsa (2024)

FAQs

How do you make tomatillo salsa less bitter? ›

to prevent them from ending up bitter;
  1. -USE FRESH TOMATILLOS- this makes a huge. difference. ...
  2. -If you are boiling them, removing them from the. ...
  3. -The most important tip; wait until the tomatillos are. ...
  4. - Adding baking soda to cooking water is thought to. ...
  5. - Rinse tomatillos well of their sticky residue before.
Dec 28, 2020

How do you keep tomatillo salsa from congealing? ›

A heads-up about those tomatillos: If you boil them, make sure you cool the tomatillos (and the water) completely or else the salsa will congeal. If your salsa is lacking tang and you don't want to add tomatillos or lime juice, you can add a splash of vinegar.

What's the difference between guacamole salsa and avocado salsa? ›

Superfans could even add a spoonful of avocado salsa to spice up your avocado toast. The key differences between avocado salsa and guacamole, as Boss the Kitchen notes, are that avocado salsa is much thinner and includes an important key ingredient: tomatillos.

How long do you boil a tomatillo? ›

Place tomatillos in a nonreactive saucepan with enough water to cover. Bring to a boil. Simmer until tomatillos soften and begin to burst, about 10 minutes. Drain tomatillos and place in a food processor or blender with onion, garlic, jalapeño peppers, cilantro, salt, and pepper.

What can I add to salsa to make it less bitter? ›

If the problem is just a little bitterness on the tongue, salt is usually the best foil. If you can find out where the bitterness came from by sampling other pieces of your raw ingredients, you can try upping the ratio of other ingredients to temper it.

Why does my tomatillo salsa taste sour? ›

Raw tomatillos can be acidic, you want your finished salsa to be tangy, but not mouth-puckeringly sour. If your finished salsa is too sour, add more sugar, ¼ teaspoon at a time until the flavor is more balanced.

Why is my tomatillo salsa gelatinous? ›

Why Does Tomatillo Salsa Gel? It's hard to resist diving into a warm bowl of salsa but if for some reason you do end up refrigerating salsa verde, don't be surprised if you notice the tomatillo's natural pectin at work, resulting in a thicker consistency when cooled.

How do you make salsa better? ›

All great salsa need a hit of acidity to lighten and brighten their flavors. Perry and Damuck like lime juice (skip the zest; it's too perfume-y), plain white vinegar, or red wine vinegar, which is a nice match for the tomatoes. Avoid vinegars with overly bossy or clashing flavors, like balsamic and apple cider.

Why is my tomatillo salsa thick? ›

Use it on scrambled eggs, tacos, chicken and grilled flank steak. Tomatillos contain natural pectin, so don't be surprised if the consistency of the salsa thickens after it's refrigerated.

How do you cut an avocado for salsa? ›

To cube avocado for salsa or guacamole, start by using a small knife to make horizontal and vertical slices across the avocado, but not through the skin. Slide a spoon between the peel and the flesh, scooping the avocado out of the skin. What you should end up with are beautiful little avocado cubes.

What is avocado salsa called? ›

5.0. (2) 2 Reviews. Tomatillos, serrano chile, and avocados come together in this hybrid of creamy guacamole and salsa verde.

What is avocado salsa made of? ›

Avocado salsa is a vibrant and chunky dip. Almost a cross between guacamole and pico de gallo, it's a refreshing blend of avocados, tomatoes, onions, jalapeño, lime juice, and cilantro. Served with tortilla chips, it's the perfect summer appetizer.

How do you know when tomatillos are done cooking? ›

Place the tomatillos in a saucepan, cover with water and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 8 to 10 minutes, flipping them over halfway through, until softened and olive green.

Is it better to roast or boil tomatillos for salsa? ›

Roasted tomatillos might taste better eaten plain beside a boiled one, but they do not make better Salsa Verde. So says the Chef. Tomatillo Salsa can be made in huge batches and then canned, or made in small batches to enjoy over the course of a week.

How do you neutralize a bitter taste? ›

Sweetness: From sugar, honey, fruits or otherwise, sweetness will counteract bitter and sour flavours. It can also be used to cut down the heat of a particularly spicy meal. Saltiness: Salt plays two very important roles in flavouring a dish. Firstly, it balances against bitterness.

How do you get the bitter taste out of sauce? ›

Add Some Baking Soda

If your tomato sauce is too acidic and verging on bitter, turn to baking soda, not sugar. Yes, sugar might make the sauce taste better, but good old baking soda is an alkaline that will help balance the excess acid. A little pinch should do the trick.

Are tomatillos supposed to be bitter? ›

By the same token, if the cucumber is left on the vine long enough for it's seeds to ripen, the peeling will begin to yellow and it too will be bitter. Raw, unripe tomatillo tastes quite a bit like a raw green tomato, though it is more mucilagenous in texture.

How do you get the acid taste out of salsa? ›

Grab some citrus, sugar, or honey.

Try squeezing in the juice of a quarter lime and a half teaspoon of sugar or honey. Remember you can always add more, so mix in additional flavors little by little and taste as you go.

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