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4.9 from 27 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.

Prep Time
30 mins
Cook Time
30 mins
Total Time
45 mins
Servings: 6 servings
Calories: 287 kcal
Course: Appetizer , Condiments
Cuisine: Mexican

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

    Cup of Yum
  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.)
  5. Puree everything and add more salt or lime juice to taste.
  6. 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.

Notes

  • 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 Information

Calories 287kcal (14%) Carbohydrates 18g (6%) Protein 4g (8%) Fat 25g (38%) Saturated Fat 4g (20%) Polyunsaturated Fat 3g Monounsaturated Fat 16g Sodium 65mg (3%) Potassium 932mg (27%) Fiber 13g (52%) Sugar 3g (6%) Vitamin A 457IU (9%) Vitamin C 25mg (28%) Calcium 34mg (3%) Iron 1mg (6%)

Nutrition Facts

Serving: 6servings

Amount Per Serving

Calories 287

% Daily Value*

Calories 287kcal 14%
Carbohydrates 18g 6%
Protein 4g 8%
Fat 25g 38%
Saturated Fat 4g 20%
Polyunsaturated Fat 3g 18%
Monounsaturated Fat 16g 80%
Sodium 65mg 3%
Potassium 932mg 20%
Fiber 13g 52%
Sugar 3g 6%
Vitamin A 457IU 9%
Vitamin C 25mg 28%
Calcium 34mg 3%
Iron 1mg 6%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet.