Homemade Green Enchilada Sauce
We had ground turkey and quinoa taco bowls last night. Since I cannot have any cheese or any other creamy gooey ingredient to tie it together I made some enchilada sauce. The original plan was to make a vegan sour cream (cashew based). But I totally didn't realize that I had to soak the nuts over night, so that genius thought went right out the window. Being the good wife that I am, I grabbed some sour cream and shredded cheese for my husband (who is definitely not following me on this 30 day clean eating journey). But I still needed something "saucy". In the end, I decided to go with green enchilada sauce. Before I proceed with the recipe I have a small disclaimer. And of course, I also have a relevant tangent. Haha. So I have a creamy tomatillo and avocado salsa recipe up on this blog. It uses tomatillos in their raw form. It is delicious. Well I started making this sauce and only vaguely looked at the ingredients and not a full recipe. After I blended everything together it had this awful raw, bitter tomatillo flavor to it. I remembered that people are always roasting them. So I crossed my fingers and hoped that as I reduced the sauce it would take away that nasty flavor. It did! So if your sauce is coming out of the blender, and you are disgusted... Fear not! All will be well in 30 minutes. :) Makes about 3 cups
Ingredients: 6 tomatillos, husked 1/2 yellow onion 1 poblano pepper 1 jalapeño pepper 1 small bushel cilantro 6 garlic cloves 1 lime 1 1/2 cups organic vegetable broth 1 tbsp salt 1 tbsp cumin 1 tbsp olive oil
Instructions: 1. In a sauce pan add 1 tbsp olive oil and your minced garlic and diced onions. (I used a Teflon pot since I could return the sauce in it to boil. But if you wanted to use a saute pan and do extra dishes, be my guest.) 2. Cook the garlic and onions until they are fragrant and translucent. This is roughly 8 minutes. If they begin to brown too much, you can add a little bit of the vegetable stock to the mix. 3. While the onions and garlic are cooking, add your tomatillos, poblano and jalapeño peppers (both with seeds and insides cleaned/scraped), cilantro, lime juice, vegetable broth, cumin and salt to a powerful blender. Puree until smooth. 4. Add the sautéed onions and garlic and puree again. 5. Empty the blender mixture into your sauce pan and reduce for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. This will help tame the peppers and kill off that bitter raw tomatillo taste. 6. Add to your favorite Mexican inspired dish. Enjoy!