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This creamy avocado green salsa is a delicious addition to your taco night menu! It instantly elevates with its delightful spiciness, smokiness, and creaminess. You will get all the goodness of a classic salsa but with added flavors, color, and texture from the tomatillos and avocados. Ready in less than 15 minutes!
Table of Contents
Why You’ll Love This Avocado Green Salsa Recipe
This avocado salsa verde is something special! It is simple to prepare and cost-effective, as it only uses one avocado. The avocado adds a delightful creaminess (without any dairy!) that balances out the spice in the salsa, or in other dishes you serve it with.
Roasting the ingredients is well worth the time as it creates a smoky depth of flavor. And it only takes a few more minutes! If you usually stick with a plain green salsa, or a traditional red salsa, this one switches it up in a delightful way, making it a family and crowd favorite.
Serve it with chipotle lime street tacos, bean and rice burritos, these easy plant-based veggie fajitas, or butternut squash enchiladas verdes.
What is Salsa Verde?
It simple translates as “green sauce”. Unlike the usual red tomato version called salsa roja (try out this homemade roasted red salsa) or salsa cruda, this green salsa gets its distinctive bright green color from tomatillos. Tomatillos, despite the name suggesting they are ‘little tomatoes’, are actually full-grown fruits that retain their green hue even when they ripen. Their flesh also remains firm even after maturing. Tomatillos have a citrusy bite that pairs excellently with salsa ingredients, and other dishes served with salsa.
Ingredients for Avocado Salsa Verde
How To Make Tomatillo Avocado Salsa Verde
Step 1: First, turn on your oven’s broiler to roast the veggies. Put the tomatillo, poblano, onion, and garlic on a lined baking sheet. Spray vegetable oil and sprinkle cumin and coriander on the vegetables.
Step 2: Next, place the pan into the oven, adjusting your oven rack so it’s about 6 inches below the fire. Broil for about 4-5 minutes or until bubbling. Then, take out the pan, flip the vegetables over, and return to the broiler for another 4 minutes. Vegetables should have brown (charred) grill marks and be tender when pierced.
Step 3: Finally, combine the broiled veggies into the food processor or blender along with the coriander and avocado and blend until smooth.
FAQs
The charred smokiness of the ingredients gives great depth of flavor in this salsa recipe! However, be careful not to burn them as it can create a bitter taste which can ruin the flavor. To char means to “slightly burn” the outside. Charring the surface of food improves its flavor, but burning it all the way degrades the taste.
Avocado Green Salsa and Guacamole are both avocado-infused dips. Both use spices like cilantro and cumin, among other things. However, while Guacamole uses avocado as its main ingredient, this recipe highlights other ingredients, while using the avocado to make the salsa creamy.
Also, guacamole uses mostly fresh, uncooked ingredients that are blended together. The tomatillos, poblano pepper, onion, and garlic in this recipe are roasted first to give it a distinct smoky flavor. But don’t think that avocado green salsa and guac are in competition! They’re both super yummy, customizable to suit your preference, and different enough from each other they could be served together!
Toni’s Tips for Avocado Green Salsa
- Tomatillos have a sticky residue on their skin (under the papery coating). Before slicing and adding them to the salsa, make sure to rinse them under warm water to remove any residue.
- Remove the skins from the roasted poblano before combining them with the rest of the ingredients. After broiling, use a covered bowl or plastic bag to trap the steam. The skins should now be easy to remove.
- If you’re not a fan of spicy food, roasting the peppers or poblano reduces the spice level while maintaining their bite. Also, removing the pepper seeds and the white membrane (ribs) holding the seeds can greatly reduce the heat, as much of the heat is stored in the membranes.
- To keep the dip fresh after mixing it, make a seal with a piece of plastic wrap to prevent air from getting into the dip. I would suggest lightly pressing the plastic wrap onto the surface of the avocado green salsa, before covering the bowl or dish with its lid.
Serving Suggestions
This avocado green salsa goes excellently with basically any dish you’d serve with salsa!
- Burritos: like quinoa burritos, rice and bean burritos, or sweet potato burritos.
- Breakfast dishes: breakfast tacos, breakfast burritos, or tofu scramble.
- Tacos: including tofu tacos, lentil tacos, cauliflower tacos, or even crunchy taco boats.
- Mexican food classics: like sofritas, jackfruit carnitas, vegan quesadillas, and enchiladas.
- Salads: of course a taco salad, or alongside southwest quinoa salad or edamame salad.
- And don’t forget the simple satisfaction of air fryer tortilla chips, or homemade tortillas!
Storage Instructions
Store in the fridge for 3-5 days in an airtight container, sealed even tighter with plastic wrap pressed gently against the surface of the salsa. This avocado salsa verde lasts longer than conventional guacamole, because of the tomatillos’ acidity. As a result, the avocado takes a long time to oxidize, making it excellent for storage in the refrigerator.
Other Vegan Appetizers to Consider….
Vegan Appetizers
Crispy Brussels Sprouts with a Spicy Kick
Vegan Lunches
Stuffed Tomatoes Recipe
Vegan Side Dishes
Fried Green Tomatoes
Vegan Appetizers
Stuffed Roasted Sweet Peppers
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Avocado Green Salsa
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Ingredients
- 1 pound of fresh tomatillos, husked and washed
- 1 large poblano, halved and seeded
- ½ of a medium onion, thickly sliced
- 2 garlic cloves
- Vegetable oil spray
- 1 teaspoon of cumin
- ½ teaspoon of coriander
- A handful of cilantro (optional)
- 1 large avocado, pitted and peeled (optional)
- ⅛ teaspoon of salt, or more to taste
Instructions
- Turn on the broiler. Place all the tomatillos, poblano, onion, and garlic on a lined baking sheet. Spray with oil and then sprinkle the cumin and coriander on the veggies.
- Place the sheet in the broiler and broil (about 6 inches from the fire) for about 4 to 5 minutes, or until it starts bubbling.
- Take the sheet out of the oven, flip all of the ingredients, and broil for another 4 minutes or until the ingredients look nicely charred.
- Combine all the broiled ingredients into a food processor or blender with the cilantro and avocado and blend until smooth.
Notes
- Tomatillos have a sticky residue on their skin (under the papery coating). Before slicing and adding them to the salsa, make sure to rinse them under warm water to remove any residue.
- Remove the skins from the roasted poblano before combining them with the rest of the ingredients. After broiling, use a covered bowl or plastic bag to trap the steam. The skins should now be easy to remove.
- If you’re not a fan of spicy food, roasting the peppers or poblano reduces the spice level while maintaining their bite. Also, removing the pepper seeds and the white membrane (ribs) holding the seeds can greatly reduce the heat, as much of the heat is stored in the membranes.
- To keep the dip fresh after mixing it, make a seal with a piece of plastic wrap to prevent air from getting into the dip. I would suggest lightly pressing the plastic wrap onto the surface of the avocado green salsa, before covering the bowl or dish with its lid.
