Oven Roasted Tomatillo Sauce

We finally made it back to the farmer's market this week after missing a few. We were happy to see some baskets of beautiful tomatillos for sale. We grabbed two baskets right away along with some poblano peppers, onions, garlic and cilantro to make tomatillo sauce.

We like a tomatillo sauce to mix with chicken or pork for Mexican dishes, especially enchiladas. Typically, we make it on the stove, slow cooking it for awhile. This year Matt wanted to see how it turned out with the much easier oven roasting method I've been using for tomato sauce.

It turned out beautifully. All the flavors are there and it is just so simple. The oven roasting makes it taste like it slow cooked on the stove.

Oven Roasted Tomatillo Sauce

2 1/2 lbs tomatillos, skins removed, quartered
1 large onion, peeled and quartered
4 - 6 poblano peppers (depending on the size of your peppers) - seeded and quartered
2 jalapenos, seeded and halved (if you like really spicy add more)
3 cloves garlic, peeled
olive oil
1 bunch cilantro, stems removed
salt
1 white wine vinegar

Reheat oven to 350F.

Put the tomatillos, onion, poblanos, jalapenos and garlic on a baking sheet (We need two.) Drizzle enough olive oil on to coat everything.

Roast in the oven until everything is soft, about 45 minutes. The onions and peppers should have some brown on them.

Let cool a bit. Put everything into a blender or food processor. Add the cilantro. Process until everything is puréed, it won't be completely smooth. If it is a little thicker than you like add 1/4 - 1/2 c water. Stir in the vinegar. Taste and add salt as needed.

You can also play with this by adding other spices such as Mexican oregano, chili powder or epazote.

Makes about 6 cups.

We freeze it in one cup quantities. One cup is usually good to mix with meat, but we pull out two bags for something like enchiladas where it'll also be the sauce.

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