Simple Uses for Tomatillos

 

When you have a large crop of tomatillos from the garden or farmstand, you don't have time to casually include them in complicated recipes or to frantically figure out how to use them up before they go bad without getting sick of them.  You want to make the most of your harvest and to actually enjoy it.

Here at Plant to Plate, we like to keep things simple!  Here are some of my favorite ways to use or preserve tomatillos:

• Sauté them with chicken, garlic, and onions or leeks.

• Add them to other sautés and stirfry dishes.

• Bake them with chicken and poblanos.

• Bake them with pork and purslane.

• Top a baked potato with them.

• Add them to egg dishes like scrambles, omelets, and quiches.

• Add them to pasta dishes, stovetop and baked, alone or with zucchini and a leafy green like spinach, chard, lambsquarter, or purslane.

• Toss them with rice, quinoa, amaranth, and other hot grains, alone or with corn.

• Add them to rice bowls and other grain bowls.

• Make a simple soup with tomatillos, chicken, and cilantro.  Chicken broth, veggie broth, coconut milk, and creamy bases all work well with this combination.

• Add them to other soups.

• Toss them with corn and avocado.  Add dill, cilantro, or basil if desired.

• Make a Simple Salad.  A couple ideas for Simple Salad combinations with tomatillos are as follows:
• Purslane and sunflower seeds
• Mango and poblano
• Avocado, jalapeño, and cilantro

• Use them as a Frame in an Interesting Salad.  (Wondering why I capitalized those letters?  Read more about Interesting Salads here!)

• Add them to other salads and bowls.

• Make a simplified salsa verde with tomatillos, onions, jalapeños, and cilantro.  Omit the jalapeños for a milder version.  Excess salsa verde can be canned or frozen.

• Make a spread with tomatillos and cream cheese.  Spread on toast, crackers, crostini, or bagels.

• Dice and freeze them to save them for later.

• Can them.  Tomatillos can be canned whole, diced, in sauces like salsa verde, or in jams and jellies.

• Pickle them.  Tomatillos are well-suited to both traditional and quick-pickling methods.  They can be pickled alone or with additions like garlic, dill, and/or cilantro.

• Make a jam or jelly.  Tomatillo jams and jellies can be canned or frozen.

Further Reading

Growing tomatillos?  Check out these quick facts like their best growing conditions, companion plants, and expected yields.

Tomatillos are also featured in these articles:

• Quick Facts: Growing Tomatillos
• The Interesting Salad Protocol: How to Build an Interesting Salad

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