Friday Foodie Fix
This week’s Secret Ingredient for Friday Foodie Fix is tomatillos. I love tomatillos. I like to make Tomatillo Salsa and Creamy Tomatillo Salsa. I also love to make Rick Bayless’ crockpot meal of layered chicken, tomatillios, onions, potatoes and pickled jalapenos. I’ve added them to my Mexican Pizza and Mini Tomatillo Chicken Burgers. They also taste great in soups and salads.
Last year I grew the tomatillos that are pictured here. The plants were prolific and I lived on tomatillos. This year I planted a purple tomatillo plant and I only harvested 3 so far. Oh well, I always find the green ones at the farmers market. I really wanted to make purple salsa like Andrea Meyers from Andrea’s Recipes. It looks amazing and since they are freshly grown on her property, I’m sure it tastes amazing too.
If you have never played with tomatillos you really need to give them a try. They are covered in these thin paper like husks that when you remove leave a sticky film behind. It is easily rinsed off. They are often called the Mexican green tomato and belong to the same nightshade family as a tomato. Tomatillos are rich in Vitamin A and contain a good amount of Vitamin C.
If you have never tried tomatillos because you were afraid you wouldn’t like them or know what to do then this is the time to try them. Next month I am hosting the blogging event known as Go Ahead Honey, It’s Gluten Free that was started by Naomi Devlin. She authors the blog Straight Into Bed, Cakefree and Dried. My theme for the event is Scared Silly!
These are recipes using foods you were scared to eat but once you tried them realized it was silly. It’s really easy to participate. Simply write your blog post and send me an email with the photo and the link to the post no later than Saturday, October 23rd. I will then compile them all and share them in a post at the end of the month. I hope you will join in and share your recipes. Email your link and photo to diane at thewholegang dot org. If you think you are going to participate let me know in the comments, on facebook or email.
Now if you have already created recipes with tomatillos please share them here and now.
Next week’s Secret Ingredient is ….Thyme
October 15- Grapes
October 22- Balsamic Vinegar
October 29- Pepitas
Oh I'm so glad to know you are hosting!!! I can't wait to participate this month!!!! This week I'm sharing a recipe I made a long time ago, but make fairly regularly because it's an easy and tasty dinner, using a tomatillo/cilantro "pesto" of sorts…
Thank you for sharing Jenn. I love the sound of that dish. I also can't wait to hear what people were afraid to eat and then tried. I think for those who have had to make changes with foods they can't eat, we will step out of our traditional comfort zone and try new things.
Love your tomatillo photo, it's so pretty. I like these little gems, but haven't done much with them. Thanks for the reminder and the inspiration. I'm wondering about your scared silly event. Can't quite figure out what direction to take this one. I might have to do a geeky post if that's okay. Hmmm? Interesting theme, Diane. Of course, I'm not surprised you'd come up with something different, kooky and creative! Can't wait to read the contributions. Should be fun! And maybe icky. =)
Melissa
We just love tomatillos, and we even have tomatillo volunteers all over the garden this year. Thanks for sharing our purple tomatillo salsa. We also make salsa with our homegrown green tomatillos as well as a sopa verde with chicken. We also freeze whole tomatillos to use in the winter.
http://andreasrecipes.com/2010/03/24/roasted-toma…
I love that photo of the purple tomatillo salsa you have on your blog. I was happy to read on your blog that you freeze them. Maybe next year I'll get lucky again and have a big harvest. Thank you for sharing.
I "got nothing" for tomatillos. 🙁 I'm not even sure I've ever eaten one. I've seen them in the farmer's market in Florida but not around here. I should look at Wegmans next time … 25 miles away in "town." They seem to have everything. I'd like to try them!
Looking forward to you hosting Go Ahead Honey. I think it's a great theme, Diane!
Shirley
Brilliant! We will be having Rick's crockpot meal when you arrive on Wednesday so you can enjoy tomatillos. If you want I can send you home with a few too.
I saw these once a long time ago and then never again! I'd love to try them – they look like the savoury version of physalis.
I'm looking forward to folk's stories of the things they were afraid to eat. I'm not sure a whole post on offal is going to go down that well – but that's my major triumph after years of being a vegetarian – once I decided that I was going to eat meat, I thought I'd go the whole nose to tail route.
Still holding back on brains and eyeballs though – although that would make a pretty awesome Halloween meal no?
Thanks for hosting! x x x
I know I'm super late, but hopefully this still counts! The Sloppy Dudes recipe is awesome! A mix of fresh-mex and a turkey burger. Sooooo good!