I like it when one of my recipe experiments goes well. When one doesn’t, it can — shall we say — bring out a difference of opinion between John and me. You see, John refuses to waste any food. (It is truly a great quality and I do love him for his inner compost pile.) I, on the other hand, refuse to consume really bad food, especially if I am the one who made it.
An example would be the first (and only) time I attempted to make hot and sour soup. Imagine chunks of pork and cubed tofu floating in a mixture of canned chicken broth, rice vinegar, and soy sauce. Then add baby spinach leaves, non-Chinese mushrooms, and canned bamboo shoots. It was a very big pot of very bad news.
John, being the loving husband that he is, insisted that we have the soup for dinner. (Although I did notice that he ended up with a suspiciously small amount of tofu in his bowl.) No way, I told him. I’m sticking with the sticky rice.
Thankfully, not all of my experiments are such failures. The recipe below is an example of one that actually turned out well.
You start with a bottle of basic store-bought salsa verde — a very simple mixture of tomatillos, onions, jalapenos, garlic, and salt. Store-bought salsa verde, on it’s own, just tastes okay. But when you add my three secret ingredients … well, then everything’s coming up Milhouse. Enjoy.
Marie’s Secret Green Salsa
Makes about 3 cups
1 jar (14-17 ounces) salsa verde
1/2 bunch cilantro leaves
1 large ripe avocado, peeled and pitted
Juice of 1 lime
Pour the salsa verde into the bowl of a food processor. Add the cilantro.
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Add the avocado and lime juice. Process until combined and smooth.
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Transfer to a bowl and serve with tortilla chips. Also tastes great on nachos, fajitas, chalupas, migas, and breakfast tacos.
This is a great idea- I usually find verde salsa to be too tart, but adding the avocado would balance it out well. Will try this soon!
So smart to use the jarred salsa as a base; who wants to roast and peel all those tomatillos. Loving this green salsa!
Exactly! The jarred green salsa saves a lot of time and hassle, and tastes just as good as homemade!