Go green with this refreshing, quick tomatillo salsa

What to do with fresh tomatillos? I ask myself that every year as my self-seeding tomatillos offer (another) late crop.

This easy, quick salsa combines fresh tomatillos with juicy seedless grapes and jalapeño peppers for a very green, refreshing salsa. The sweet-hot-crunchy combination pairs well with grilled chicken, pork or fish as well as salsa verde enchiladas (for real tomatillo lovers).

Make sure to remove the tomatillos’ waxy coating under the husk. That can turn the fruit bitter.

Try this method: Fill a bowl with water, add a few drops of liquid soap to get it sudsy. Fill another bowl with clean water. Add tomatillos to the soapy water and let soak a minute or two. Then, gently peel off the husks and rub off the waxy coating. Once clean and shiny, rinse the tomatillo in the plain water. Any stems will twist off during husking.

In this recipe, don’t over-chop the grapes; they’re better left a little chunky.

Tomatillo-green grape salsa

Makes about 2 cups

Ingredients:

½ cup onion

2 jalapeño peppers, stemmed and seeded (if desired)

1 cup tomatillos, hulled, washed and halved

1 cup seedless green grapes, washed and stemmed

Juice of 2 limes

1 teaspoon sugar

½ teaspoon garlic salt or to taste

Instructions:

In a food processor, pulse onion until chopped. Add jalapeño peppers and pulse again briefly, until peppers are chopped. (For hotter salsa, don’t remove seeds from peppers.)

Add tomatillos to food processor and pulse a few times to chop. Add grapes and pulse very briefly.

Mix together lime juice, sugar and garlic salt. Add to tomatillo-grape mixture. Stir gently, adjusting seasoning as needed.

Refrigerate until ready to use. Will keep 3 days in refrigerator.