Ten-Minute Tomatillo Sauce Recipe + Nutrition Facts + Recipes Coming Up Soon (after a successful day of kitchen-wizarding)
You can add tomatillos, jalapenos, and garlic whole (without even chopping) to the pot and it’ll still end up perfectly fine. The only benefit you get from cutting is either a little less spicy (re: the jalapenos and garlic, because they cook down more) or a mellowing of onion flavor (I sometimes throw it in as a whole half, or a quarter it and then pull apart the layers and place them in that way.
Go forward per flavor preference and understand (like all my recipes) that this is the skeletal framework for you to flesh out per your own tastes.
The above makes one pint jar.
Given the arc of souls I know, there’s a likely 50/50 split of “What the heck is a tomatillo?” cut with the other half envisioning all the many ways they love gobbling up a good green salsa.
Verde sauces are one of my favorite things, I’ve been making this sauce for over a decade now, and I’m always looking forward to the spell when these delicious members of the nightshade family are back in season.
Seen some tomatillos at your local grocery store? (Like us) Did you just get a bunch from your local CSA? [Thanks, Stone’s Throw Farm! ] Wondering what to do with them? Worried that there’s a lot of fuss involved?
Worry not. This recipe takes 10 minutes TOPS. It’s easy-breezy, delicious, and packing a feast of anti-inflammatory antioxidant wonders.
Continue for: our super simple Ten-Minute Tomatillo Sauce Recipe; the nutrition facts for said sauce; a full day of meal-prepping/test-kitchening which lead to me finally writing down the process for a feast of tasty/body-kind/earth-kind/compassionate offerings that’ll be coming up soon (CRUST BARS are part of that list! <3 ); a boy obsessed with graboids; plus 3 days of this plant-based (mostly) whole-food family living by Lifestyle Medicine example and showing you what you can eat (and love) to thrive in best health.
Live Kindly, Feast Kindly, Grow Forward!
Items needed to start (minus the cilantro and salt which get added in AFTER boiling): tomatillos, jalapeno pepper, half an onion, 2 cloves of garlic.
Add everything to a pot, pour in the water and vinegar.
Cover, bring to a boil, let boil for 5 minutes, remove from heat.
Drain (reserve) the liquid into a different container (you may want more liquid after blending, and you could use that brine for something else<—as you’re going to see below), add all your vegetables into a blender-safe container, throw in the cilantro, and salt.
Blend.
Add more liquid, salt, cilantro, vinegar, whatever/etc per your taste preference.
Blend again. :-)
Voila! <3
Would usually be more green, but the only onions we had on hand were red and they tinted it a bit pink.
Can be eaten as-is on some chips, on tacos, on enchiladas, in burritos, on a rice bowl, however/wherever you’d usually put a salsa or hot sauce. :-)
Throw it on a taco.
Add it to a bowl of rice and beans.
So what do tomatillos have going for them?
They have Vitamins C, K, and A.
They have iron, potassium, and manganese.
They are packed with the carotenoids zeaxanthin and lutein: “Lutein and zeaxanthin filter harmful high-energy blue wavelengths of light and help protect and maintain healthy cells in the eyes. Of the 600 carotenoids found in nature, only these two are deposited in high quantities in the retina (macula) of the eye.”
They’ve got a powerful phytochemical in them named “withanolides”. What do they do? “These natural plant compounds have been shown to induce apoptosis —or cell death— in colon cancer cells. In addition to antioxidant effects, withanolides are anti-inflammatory. For this reason, Ayurvedic medicine commonly uses withanolides in the treatment of arthritis. In Western medicine, research on withanolides demonstrates clinical benefits in the alleviation of symptoms for osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis.”
[Side note: what’s driving our ever rising colon cancer cases? Processed meat, red meat, and animal products. What’s perpetuating our environmental collapse? Animal products. What do you need to start stepping away from if you want environmental sustainability for all the souls and species in your wake? Animal products. What do you NOT EVEN NEED TO CONSUME FOR BEST HEALTH? Animal products.]
Even that cilantro is packing a nutritional punch. How so? Well, a 1/4 cup of cilantro (the small end of what I suggest for this sauce) has:
16% of your daily Vitamin K (it even has a little Vitamin C and A)
Has clinically proven anti-cancer properties: “The extract exhibited anticancer activity in MCF-7 cells by affecting antioxidant enzymes possibly leading to H2O2 accumulation, cell cycle arrest at the G2/M phase and apoptotic cell death by the death receptor and mitochondrial apoptotic pathways.”
Also anti-inflammatory properties and showed migraine relief in a randomized, triple-blind, placebo-controlled trial: “The group taking the combination treatment experienced a reduced severity, duration, and frequency of migraines compared to the control group.”
Even those beloved alliums (garlic and onion) have good reason to pat themselves on the back:
“Eating vegetables of the Allium genus like garlic and onions has been linked to a lower risk of certain cancers, including stomach and colorectal.
A review of 26 studies showed that people who consumed the highest amount of allium vegetables were 22% less likely to be diagnosed with stomach cancer than those who consumed the least amount (17).
Moreover, a review of 16 studies in 13,333 people demonstrated that participants with the highest onion intake had a 15% reduced risk of colorectal cancer compared to those with the lowest intake (18).
These cancer-fighting properties have been linked to the sulfur compounds and flavonoid antioxidants found in allium vegetables.
For example, onions provide onionin A, a sulfur-containing compound that has been shown to decrease tumor development and slow the spread of ovarian and lung cancer in test-tube studies (19, 20).
Onions also contain fisetin and quercetin, flavonoid antioxidants that may inhibit tumor growth.”
So, step away from that carcass, breastmilk, and embryo giving you a feast of diseases (and ruining the earth, and causing an animal to suffer, and filling your children with preventable diseases) and go make yourself tomatillo sauce and pour it over some heart-healthy beans, rice, and whatever other veggies you have on hand.
Your body will thank you, the earth will thank you, that animal-you-don’t-need-to-be-consuming will thank you, and you’ll brighten the health outlook of your kiddos.
Plant-Based Whole-Food Breakfast: date-sweet overnight oats, banana, golden flax, berry sauce (blueberry, strawberry, and mango)
Plant-Based Lunch (not whole-food only because the dressing has some toasted sesame oil in it): quinoa stirfry (mushrooms, eggplants, green beans, peppers, and onions), summer squash medley, easy avocado, ruby kraut, kalamata olives, green onions, furikake, and Q’s Sesame Dressing.
Dessert: Q had a piece of chocolate Crystal left for him, and because I didn’t have oats earlier in the day I had them for dessert :-)
Date-sweet overnight oats, banana, flax meal, berry sauce (blueberry, strawberry, and mango)
Drawing lessons with Papa. <3
Plant-Based Whole-Food Family Feasting: quinoa for Ian, black rice noodles for us, served along with romaine, swiss chard, sweet potato, quick-pickled cabbage, green onions, and peanut sauce.
Color Close-Up <3
Nightly Reading
Plant-Based Kiddo Breakfast (he’s fixing himself): overnight oats, mango, flax, berry sauce (blueberry, strawberry, and mango), cashew cream.
Monday, he worked on schoolwork while I cooked and drew this sweet picture of him and his friend Layton, while continuing his obsession with graboids.
Obsessed seem like hyperbole? See below.
These were what had been drawn over the weekend and tail-end of the previous week.
And because I’d forgotten to post schoolwork last week, this had been Friday’s
Thursday’s
Also Thursday’s (he did two sight-words that day)
Wednesday’s
How does he keep active while doing all that drawing (and schoolwork)? He has a standing desk. Always one to make things a little extra, he also tends to dance while drawing.
What’s he dancing to? His third request of “Sister’s Are Doin’ It For Themselves” <3
Plant-Based Whole Food Lunch: black rice noodles, served along with romaine, swiss chard, cucumber, red bell pepper, green onions, ruby kraut, and peanut sauce.
Crust Bars, mango, berry sauce, and cashew cream.
How to make crust bars? This recipe will be coming up on Sunday.
Was making nuttbutterscotch bites and changed up the order to blend the nut butter with the oatmilk and dates (before adding every thing else) and came up with a mind-blowing sweet peanut butter concoction that tastes like filling for a peanut butter cheese cake. This’ll also be coming up soon. Three ingredients and good enough you could eat it right out of the jar, but it tastes way better with those crust bars. <3
Another fun side-cook.
I used the reserved brine from the tomatillo sauce and kept it to make some quick-pickled jalapenos!
Recipe for quick-pickled jalapenos coming up soon too. <3
Cooking Progress/Pride (<—as a food-loving Hobbit, I LOVE it when some new concoction is discovered and delicious. After perfecting the crust bars, stumbling on that awesome peanut sauce, and then tripping over the zero-waste solution for leftover brine that could be turned into extra tasty pickled peppers, I was riding on a swell of food-joy.)
…and the zoomed out view of all still to be done.
Berry sauce reducing liquid on the stove, oatmilk soaking up liquid so it’ll be extra creamy, and vegetables (and fruits) yet to be prepped: green onions, mariachi peppers, yellow squash, zucchini, fresh jars cooling down, and a compost bowl filling up.
Berry Sauce (strawberries and blueberries we picked ourselves, mango from the store added for sweetness) and my bowl cleaner in the background. :-)
j - “Why are you looking so serious?!”
Q - “I’m trying to convey that I will eat all of this rice and I mean business!”
<3
j - “Where’re you going?”
Q - “This is so good! I need to go share some with Papa, because I’m sure he’s going to love it too.”
As much as he LOVES food, one of the things I love most about Q is that if he has a really tasty bit of something he is always eager to share the joy. I’ve seen him offer his food to strangers (as sweet as that is to redirect) and if he has something really good, he’s always searching out Ian so he can join in on the fun. <3
Oblong tomatoes from Crystal. One of my favorite things about summer? All the myriad arrays of tomatoes to try. Good for the palate and super-beneficial for your microbiome to get more and more diversity.
Crystal’s tomatoes prepped up balsamic style, and my list of to-dos finally done.
Annnnnd moving right on to dinner prep. Monday was an unusually long day of meal-prepping. All of this is normally conquered on Saturday, but we had opted to take advantage of the last great beach day.
Here seen: lettuce, swiss chard, swiss chard stalk.
Plant-Based Whole-Food Family Feasting: brown jasmine rice, summer squash, lettuce, swiss chard (plus stalks), easy avocado, orca beans, red bell peppers, balsamic style tomatoes, and tomatillo sauce.
Nightly Reading
Plant-Based Kiddo Breakfast (he’s fixing himself): overnight oats, flax, berry sauce (blueberry, strawberry, and mango), cashew cream, and peanut sauce (with dates and oatmilk).
Morning cardio. <3
We moved schoolwork outside for the day so that I could work on some weeding now that the temps have finally dipped.
Before
Our yard turns into a brambly mess as soon as it gets Central New York sweltery. This lady despises heat and there are always a million other things I’d love to do more than weeding (<—like Monday’s cooking marathon), but eventually it gets terrible enough that I pull myself by the ear back into the thicket.
After
I’m telling you: he’s obsessed. <3
He requested I trim that back hedge into a graboid, and I complied like the pliant/placating Mama Bear I am.
And then we fled the noon sun and came in for Taco/Tostada Tuesday prep.
Here seen: glorious, scrumptious orca beans.
Q’s Tacos: orca beans, tomatillo sauce, lettuce, green onions, balsamic tomatoes, quick-pickled jalapenos, and queso on one (“So that one seems extra special and is extra fun to eat.”)
My Tostadas: orca beans, tomatillo sauce, lettuce, green onions, balsamic tomatoes, quick-pickled jalapenos, and queso
Dessert (for me): date-sweet overnight oats,flax meal, berry sauce (blueberry, strawberry, and mango)
Q’s: nuttbutterscotch bite with the last bit of Crystal’s daughter’s homemade vegan marshmallow sauce.
Post-Lunch Pluviophile Time
Annnnd more graboids: “It’s me in alien form riding a graboid.”
“It’s Papa riding a graboid. You can tell it is him because of the green eyes, the mustache, and the chin hairs!” :-D
Solo dinner for me as I was heading off to a Board of Education meeting: black rice noodles, lettuce, green onions, summer squash, easy avocado, balsamic style tomatoes, ruby kraut, Q’s Sesame Dressing.
When your amazing, health-focused husband is charged with fixing dinner because you’ll be gone, and this is the picture he gives you of their meal. <3
Looks to be quinoa stirfry, balsamic tomatoes, avocado, cucumber, swiss chard, squash, furikake, and cracked pepper.
I walk to and from Board of Education meetings so I can a) reduce as much gas usage as possible b) get some exercise c) it’s good for the mind. Favorite part? The cacophony of crickets and tree frogs.
My husband went to this school, the first time I saw it was when I was driving into South Onondaga to spend the first Thanksgiving with his family and I remember thinking this whole hamlet was one of the most idyllic places I had ever seen. Not the most positive of forward-thinking souls back then, I never would have imagined I’d one day be an elected member of the Board of Education (because I wanted to participate in a system my son would be a part of), or have a son (with my college boyfriend) walking down the same district footsteps as his father.
Life has such fateful, big-breathed arcs. <3
Nightly Reading
What’s the most impactful thing you can do as an individual to help your kin, community, millions of species, and planet? Transition as plant-based as possible.🌎♥️
Why? Plant-Based foods are environmentally imperative 🌎. They also promote ideal health💪 (which takes stress off our overburdened health care system), are inexpensive🙌, delicious🤤, & compassionate. 💕
Why imperative, though? 🤔We’re approaching (& have crossed) climate tipping points that will doom our kin & millions of other species. 😱📣Reducing/eliminating animal products is the *most impactful thing an individual can do* to prevent worse. 🌎🔥
Why? Animal Agriculture creates more emissions than the entire transportation sector combined, it’s tied to water waste/loss/pollution (<-- freshwater is our most precious resource💧), land loss/deforestation (<-- exacerbates climate change by reducing our ability to sequester carbon🔥🌎), ocean acidification (<-- FYI 50-85% of earth’s oxygen originates from oceanic plankton🌊) & vast species loss/extinction/suffering💔📣🌎
Plus, consuming animal products is tied to increased risk of cardiovascular disease❤️🩹, diabetes👎, cancer👎, and chronic disease👎; whereas Plant-Based feasting is linked to preventing/reversing some of our most common diseases (<— like cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cancer); plus it promotes ideal health & robust strength (ie Olympians, Weightlifters, Endurance Athletes are thriving via PBWFs too). 🎉🙌♥️
What organizations are promoting plant-based diets for best health and environmental stability? National Institutes of Health, Mayo Clinic, Yale, the United Nations, Harvard School of Health, American Heart Association, American College of Cardiology, American Cancer Society, American Diabetes Association, The American Academy of Pediatrics, National Kidney Foundation, even the Parkinson’s Foundation.
We’re all overwhelmed in one way or another, but for the sake of our kin (and the millions of species we share this planet with) we need to start pivoting forward. As someone who once rarely ate green things & used to eat animal products at every meal, I can assure you that is possible, affordable, enjoyable, & purposeful to pivot Plant-Based. In fact, our whole family is now healthier/stronger than ever. 🙌♥️
Anecdotally, our son had failure-to-thrive, was also plagued with perpetual ear-infections/sinus-infections, and had an omnipresent runny nose. What was he eating? Grass-fed milk, organic/antibiotic-free/grass-fed/local meats, eggs from organic-fed/well-loved chickens from a neighbor, every meal came with vegetables, and we limited junkfood. He was healed via a plant-based diet: he’s launched out of that diagnosis and the last time he had a sinus-infection (or was sick at all) was in 2019 when he had some cheese at a school Christmas party. Before shifting to PBWF’s he was sick every month, and how he’s a robust, vital, thriving kiddo. 🙌🎉♥️
If you think any of the above sounds over-reached/absurd/impossible, please go read the links above. I understand the inclination to hackle-raise (<—because I was once totally there) but the science is clear: any step we make forward is imperative (<—and again “STEPS” is the focus. Don’t leap, just start making steps!). It’s as simple as starting with one meal a week and growing from there.💕
We have the ability (deliciously, healthfully, kindly, inexpensively) to *preserve/protect* the planet we share with millions of species & our kin. How are we going to use that power today?✌️🤟🖖
