*This post may contain affiliate links. Read more »
Let’s be real for a sec. Store-bought salsa verde is trash, and makes you cry with disappointment! This roasted tomatillo sauce is a seriously well-tested breeze to whip up, with just a few simple steps. You don’t need any fancy kitchen gear to turn roasted tomatillos, spicy jalapeños, and a touch of smoky cumin into the salvation your chilaquiles verdes and vegan taquitos have been calling out for in the night.
Enter your email & I'll send it to your inbox. Plus, get great new recipes from me every week!
By submitting this form, you consent to receive emails from Cinnamon Snail.
Roasting the tomatillos brings out their best, adding a subtle smokiness without overwhelming the bright flavors. Unlike jarred salsa verde from the store, this salsa verde is at the upper echelons of freshness with a superb natural texture and just the right amount of zest without preservatives, or a single drop of godforsaken nonsense that makes you scream.
Did I mention that this recipe is versatile as all get out? Having this stuff on hand in your fridge, or canned for use year round makes vegan tostadas or vegan burrito bowls ready to blow people’s minds ASAP with minimal fuss.
Ready to unleash this irresistible green sauce onto your unsuspecting tortilla chips?
The clear steps in this recipe are gonna have you rocking a classic, stunning salsa in no time!
Jump to:
🥰Why you'll love this Mexican salsa verde recipe
✊ Vegan AF & GF Like all of my vegan Mexican recipes, this homemade salsa verde is made without any cholesterol, or animal-based ingredients. Looking for gluten-free vegan recipes for salsa? Your search ends here, m’sweet love.
⏱️ Quick & Easy. With just a few simple steps and about twenty minutes from start to finish, this recipe comes together quickly, and also doesn’t trash your whole kitchen.
☄️ Multiple Dimensions of Flavor: By roasting the garlic whole and the onions in big pieces for a relatively short time at a high temperature, you get some of the sweet caramelized flavor from the outside, balanced by a little bit of the raw bit from the inside of the garlic. It’s a little trick I have been using for years in restaurants to give my recipes a more complex flavor.
🌱 Easy-to-Find Ingredients. You don’t need any hard-to-find designer spaceship dust for this bad boyo—just grab some tomatillos, jalapeños, and a few pantry staples and you are ready to rock.
✅ Tested and Approved Worldwide: Like all the vegan recipes I share, this roasted tomatillo sauce has been tested and perfected by a team of recipe testers around the globe. You can trust that this recipe will turn out magnificent, no matter where you are, or I’ll eat my hat! (Don’t mess up and make me eat an actual hat though. Please).
💣 Learn the bomb vegan Mexican recipes
This guide to my most popular vegan Mexican recipes is 100% FREE, & you'll love the actual heck out of it 🥰
🌶️ Ingredients for this salsa verde recipe
Tomatillos
Even though the name tomatillo translates to something like “little tomato” in Spanish, and they may resemble green tomatoes at first glance, they're actually a distinct fruit with their own unique qualities. Unlike the sweet, red tomato, tomatillos are tart, bright, and almost citrusy. Compare the outcome of this recipe made with tomatillos to my salsa roja recipe which is made with tomatoes, and it’s for real night and day.
Tomatillos are encased in a papery husk that peels back to reveal a firm, vibrant green fruit. Be sure to avoid consuming the toxic parts of the plant, which includes the sticky residue left on the fruit by the husk.
To find ripe tomatillos, look for those that have completely filled their husks and are firm and blemish-free.
Jalapeños
Jalapeño peppers are kinda essential for heat in most salsas. Heck, I even add some to my habanero salsa recipe to diversify its flavor. Roasting them mellows their heat and makes their flavor more robust, giving the salsa a nice kick without overwhelming spice. Serrano peppers are a great replacement if you can’t get jalapeños or prefer a little more heat.
If you want a super-mild salsa, you can swap the jalapeño in this recipe with poblano.
You can even use fresno chilies, the star of sambal oelek, or red jalapeños like you might use to make my sriracha recipe, though the red chilies will muddy the color of this otherwise green salsa.
Dried Guajillo Chile
Guajillo chiles are dried mirasol peppers with a mild to medium heat and a slightly sweet, smoky flavor. I rely on them in authentic Mexican dishes, as well as in totally non-Mexican recipes like my red curry paste that call for a milder, more robust pepper flavor.
If you can get them, this salsa is also insanely friggin’ good made with ancho chiles or dried hatch chilies (like you would use to make New Mexico-style red chili sauce). But if you use ancho chiles, just make sure you break the dried peppers up into smaller pieces so that after roasting, your food processor doesn’t struggle to break it down.
Cumin Seeds
Cumin seeds are aromatic seeds that add a warm, earthy flavor with a subtle hint of citrus. Lemme tell you this - I have tried a zillion forms of cumin from all around the world, and by a LONG SHOT the wild mountain cumin from Burlap and Barrel are so much better than anything else.
I use it in everything from arvi sabji, and arhar dal tadka to condiments like tamarind chutney, and bumbu bali. These particular cumin seeds are insanely fragrant and more slender and less “woody” than ordinary cumin seeds.
Don’t stress though, you can get away with using regular ol' cumin seeds in this recipe if that’s what you’ve got on hand. Ground cumin can be used as a substitute too, though it won’t provide the same toasted flavor or texture.
Get my fave cumin seeds for free!
Using this link, add the wild mountain cumin to your cart, spend at least $15 on some of the other absurdly good spices from Burlap & Barrel (they all seriously slap) and the bottle of this bangin' wild mountain cumin becomes FREE, and you will love it so much.
Fresh Lime Juice
I'm really all about using lime juice in my salsas. Not just this one, in my salsa macha too. But if you don’t have limes, lemon juice, or even apple cider vinegar can be used as substitutes.
*See the recipe card at the bottom of the page for exact quantities, nutritional info, and detailed cooking directions.
🤯Variations
Creamy, smooth tomatillo sauce:
Some folks like a creamier and more super-thoroughly pureed avocado salsa for tacos. You can add the salsa to a high speed blender (like I do sometimes in my trusty blendtec) and either blend it with half of a ripe avocado, a little vegan sour cream, or even some vegan kewpie. The other option is, to make sure the salsa is as cold as possible and run the blender on high speed while slowly drizzling in an equal amount of neutral tasting oil to emulsify it.
Grilled tomatillo salsa verde:
Looking for something smokier and more robust to serve with vegan sausage or vegan fried chicken? Leave the tomatillos whole instead of quartering them, and just slice the onions into disks. Brush them with olive oil and grill them along with the jalapeño either on an outdoor bbq grill, or inside in a grill pan until charred lightly all over. Then blend that grilled up goodness with the remaining ingredients.
I used to rock that style of salsa on the blue corn hempseed crusted tempeh on my food truck, and I've included the recipe for it in my cookbook!
📖 How to make Tomatillo Sauce
Make the best homemade salsa you ever had on your first attempt by following these step-by-step photos with helpful tips. Or scroll down to the bottom of this page for the easy-to-print recipe card.
Step One
Elon Husk:
Remove the husks from the tomatillos and scrub the living daylights outta them under cold running water to get rid of any sticky residue left behind from the husks. Place tomatillos in a colander to drip dry.
✅ Also, go ahead and preheat your oven to 400°F (205°C).
Step Two
Seed Between The Lines:
Remove the stems from the dried chiles and shake out the seeds.
✅ If you are using ancho chiles instead of guajillos, break them up into a few smaller pieces, so that later when you puree the salsa, the dried peppers break down nicely.
Step Three
Veggie Prep School:
Get your tomatillos, jalapeños, and onion ready by cutting the tomatillos into quarters and discarding the stems from the jalapeños. Toss them all in a bowl with the garlic cloves, cumin seeds, and olive oil.
✅ Pretty as they look, red onions are honestly not the best to use for salsa verde, because they dull the vibrant green color. White onions, Vidalia onions, or Spanish onions will give you the nicest color. But if you don't really care about the color so much, go ahead and use red onions. I do sometimes!
Step Four
Roast with the Most:
Spread the vegetable mixture on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Roast in the oven at 400°F (205°C) for 16-18 minutes, or until the garlic cloves and chopped onion turn a light golden brown and the tomatillo skins start to wither.
Let the roasted veggies cool down to room temperature.
Step Five
Purée Time:
Transfer the cooled veggies to a food processor. Add cilantro, lime juice, and salt, and blend for 90 seconds until the mixture is mostly smooth but still has some bits and seeds throughout.
Step Six
Store 'n' Score:
Allow the hot salsa to cool to room temperature before using it. Or once cool, store it in a sealed container in the fridge for up to 5 days, or divide it into portions and freeze for up to 3 months for future yummy meals and snack times.
💡Serving Ideas
Making salsa is such a good excuse to fire up some vegan tamales or lion’s mane mushroom fajitas to eat the darned stuff all over!
A little sprinkle of vegan cotija and a healthy dose of this roasted tomatillo salsa verde is a silly-easy way to transform a bowl of vegan Mexican rice and homemade refried beans into a gosh darned bowl of heaven. Add some tofu chorizo why don’tcha? Or some homemade vegan chicken grilled in chili garlic sauce, and slathered in vegan nacho cheese, and now you have an instant knock out meal.
It’s great alongside some freshly coated vegan elotes and a side of sopa de lentejas.
👉Top tips
- Check the Tomatillos for Ripeness: Make sure your tomatillos are firm and slightly sticky. Overripe tomatillos can be mushy and less tangy, which might affect the salsa’s flavor and texture.
- Roast, Don’t Steam: Don’t overcrowd your baking sheet. Spread the vegetables out in a single layer to ensure they roast evenly. If they’re too crowded, they’ll steam instead of roast, which will prevent that deep, caramelized flavor you're aiming for.
- Adjust the Heat: If you prefer a milder salsa, remove the seeds from the jalapeños before roasting or leave them out entirely.
- Cool Before Blending: Allow the roasted veggies to cool completely before blending. This prevents them from steaming and becoming too watery, which can dilute the salsa’s texture and flavor.
🤷♀️ Recipe FAQs
Store roasted tomatillo salsa verde in a sealed container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. You can also freeze it for up to 3 months. If freezing it, it’s a nice idea to break it up into smaller portions so that you can just thaw what you want at any given time.
To can this salsa verde, start by sterilizing your jars and lids in boiling water. Fill each jar with the hot salsa, leaving about half an inch of headspace. Wipe the rims clean, place the lids on top, and screw on the bands until fingertip tight.
Process the jars in a boiling water bath for fifteen minutes, adjusting for altitude if necessary. Carefully remove the jars with a jar lifter, or tongs and let them cool completely on a towel, then check the seals. Store any unsealed jars in the fridge and consume within a week. Sealed jars can be kept in a cool, dark place for up to one year.
Check for off smells, mold growth, or changes in texture and color. If the salsa develops an unusual odor, a slimy consistency, or has visible mold, it's best to discard it. Additionally, if it has been stored for longer than recommended (typically up to one week in the refrigerator), it's safer to make a fresh batch.
Salsa verde and green enchilada sauce both use tomatillos as a base, but they differ in texture and flavor. Salsa verde is typically chunkier, fresh, and tangy, often eaten as a dip or topping. Green enchilada sauce is usually smoother, almost with the texture of sriracha, and seasoned with spices, making it perfect for drizzling over enchiladas.
While in some rare cases, restaurants puree their tomatillo salsa with mayonnaise (which contains egg), traditional salsa verde is vegan. It also happens to be completely gluten free!
✌️My faves to serve with tomatillo sauce:
Master the art of vegan Mexican cooking in a super-fun recorded cooking class with Chef Adam Sobel!
Salsa Verde (Smoky Roasted Tomatillo Sauce)
Ingredients
- 1 pound tomatillos husked and thoroughly washed
- 2 guajillo chiles
- 2 jalapeños stems discarded
- 1 onion quartered
- 5 cloves garlic
- ½ teaspoon cumin seeds or ground cumin
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 cup cilantro chopped
- ¼ cup lime juice
- ¾ teaspoon salt or to taste
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 400°F (205°C).
- Husk the tomatillos and wash them well to get rid of any sticky residue on their outsides.
- Remove the stems from the dried chilies and shake them to get rid of most of the seeds.
- Cut the tomatillos into quarters, and toss them in a bowl along with the jalapeños, onions, garlic cloves, dried guajillo chiles, cumin seeds, and olive oil.
- Spread the mixed vegetables onto a parchment paper-lined baking pan. Roast at 400°F (205°C) for 16-18 minutes until the garlic cloves are lightly golden brown and the skins of the tomatillos have withered slightly. Remove the baking pan from the oven and allow the contents to cool to room temperature.
- Place the roasted vegetables in a food processor along with the cilantro, lime juice, and salt, and puree for 90 seconds until mostly smooth but with little bits and seeds throughout.
- Store in a sealed container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days, or portion and freeze for up to 3 months.
Notes
Enter your email & I'll send it to your inbox. Plus, get great new recipes from me every week!
By submitting this form, you consent to receive emails from Cinnamon Snail.
Kimbi Walton says
Thick and rich with layers of spice. Terrific in the chilaquiles!
hg says
A nice, tangy sauce that accompanies many Mexican dishes and snacks kicking it up a notch. I've made it for burritos, taquitos and even just to dip tortilla chips in.