Sacramento Digs Gardening: 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).

Green salsa ingredients — These beautiful green ingredients together
make a delicious salsa. Don't forget to remove
the waxy coating from the tomatillos.

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.

RECIPE

A recipe for preparing delicious meals from the bounty of the garden.

Keywords:

recipe recipes tomatillos salsa jalapeno peppers green grapes fall November seasonal cooking condiment appetizer backyard produce farmers markets Sacramento gardening

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Garden checklist for week of April 19

After this midweek storm, start getting serious about spring gardening. Flowers are blooming about three weeks ahead of schedule. That includes weeds!

* Get ready to swing into action in the vegetable garden – if you haven’t already. As nights warm up over 50 degrees, set out tomato, pepper and eggplant transplants.

* From seed, plant beans, beets, cantaloupes, carrots, corn, cucumbers, melons, radishes and squash; wait on pumpkins until May. Plant onion sets.

* In the flower garden, plant seeds for asters, cosmos, celosia, marigolds, salvia, sunflowers and zinnias. Transplant petunias, zinnias, geraniums and other summer bloomers.

* Plant perennials and dahlia tubers for summer bloom. Late April is about the last chance to plant summer bulbs, such as gladiolus and tuberous begonias.

* Transplant lettuce and cabbage seedlings.

* April is the last chance to plant citrus trees such as dwarf orange, lemon and kumquat. These trees also look good in landscaping and provide fresh fruit in winter.

* Smell orange blossoms? Give citrus trees a low dose of balanced fertilizer (such as 10-10-10) during bloom to help set fruit. Keep an eye out for ants. If leaves look yellow, your tree may need an iron boost -- apply some chelated iron fertilizer.

* Apply slow-release fertilizer to the lawn.

* Thoroughly clean debris from the bottom of outdoor ponds or fountains.

* Spring brings a flush of rapid growth, and that means your garden needs nutrition. Give shrubs and trees a slow-release fertilizer. Mulch with a 1-inch layer of compost, which helps the soil, but keep it a few inches away from trunks and stems.

* Azaleas and camellias looking a little yellow? If leaves are turning yellow between the veins, give them a boost with chelated iron.

* Trim dead flowers but not leaves from spring-flowering bulbs such as daffodils and tulips. Those leaves gather energy to create next year's flowers. Also, give the bulbs a fertilizer boost after bloom.

* Pinch chrysanthemums back to 12 inches for fall flowers. Cut old stems to the ground.

* Mulch around plants to conserve moisture and control weeds.

Send us a gardening question, a post suggestion or information about an upcoming event. sacdigsgardening@gmail.com

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