Mushroom & Red Pepper Tacos w Salsa Verde

Tomatillos - Vegetable #6 for New Year Resolution #2 - Take 2!! The last time I made Roasted Tomatillo Zucchini and really liked it. I had 3 tomatillos left behind and wanted to use them before they went bad. It was interesting that a google search brings up hundreds of recipes for Salsa Verde. So I decided to try it out today.

Mushroom & Red Pepper Tacos w Salsa Verde

Prep Time: 20 minutes overall.

Ingredients: 

1. 3 medium tomatillos, husks removed, halved
2. 1 small red onion, quartered.
3. 1/3 cup fresh cilantro leaves
4. 1 small fresh jalapeno (optional)
5. 2-3 tbsp lemon/lime juice
6. 1 large red bell pepper, diced or sliced
7. 2 Portabella mushrooms, diced or sliced
8. 1 medium tomato, diced
9. 1/2 cup greens (baby spinach, spring mix or romaine!)
10. 1 tbsp soy sauce
11. 1 tsp cumin powder
12. 1-2 tbsp taco seasoning, to taste.
13. 1/2 cup vegetable broth
14. 2 tbsp (heaping) Nutritional Yeast
15. Soft shell tacos (flour or corn).  
16. Salt and pepper to taste. 

Directions:

Place tomatillos, cut face down, red onion and a whole jalapeno in a baking dish and broil on HI for 5-7 minutes. Remove from the oven, and a couple of ice cubes, let stand for a couple of minutes. Then mix in the cilantro leaves, lemon/lime juice, jalapeno pepper and salt to taste and transfer to a food processor, blend until smooth. Add more salt, or lemon/lime juice to taste. 

While the tomatillos and onions are broiling, dice bell pepper and mushrooms. In a skillet on medium heat, bring vegetable broth to a boil and add cumin, taco seasoning and soy sauce and mix in veggies. Mix well and cook down until almost dry. Transfer to a bowl and add nutritional yeast. Assemble tacos - layer greens on the tortilla, add peppers and mushrooms, sprinkle fresh tomatoes and top off with salsa verde. 

My Assessment: Something was missing. I could not tell 100% what was off about this dish today but it seemed like I was missing some vital ingredient. I'll have to try it a few more times until I get it just right. This was my first time using nutritional yeast. I had no idea what it was until I read about it in a blog post by Lindsay Nixon (www.happyherbivore.com). I'd read that it was similar in taste to cheese and could not agree more. It is an excellent source of Vitamin B12 which is probably the only vitamin not available in a plant-based diet.  I plan on using it on a regular basis. 

Roasted Tomatillo Zucchini

Roasted Tomatillo Zucchini

So after another week off from finding interesting new veggies, I've got 2 this weekend. Vegetable #6 for New Year Resolution #2 - Tomatillos. While I've had roasted tomatillo salsa before at mexican restaurants, especially when I was living down in Texas, I'd never used it for cooking. Tomatillos (or tomate verde) are a staple in Mexican cooking, often used while still unripe (green). In fact, a quick Google search revealed more recipes for roasted tomatillo salsa than anything else. I wanted to use these more as a vegetable, rather than a condiment. I had some fresh Zucchini sitting in the fridge, so decided to modify one of my older recipes (Roasted Zucchini), to incorporate roasted tomatillos. 

Prep Time: 20-30 minutes

Ingredients:

1. 2 medium Zucchini Squash. I prefer to pick the smallest and thinnest ones I can find in the store. Each one was washed, dried and cut into 8 wedges, lengthwise. Or larger chunks if you prefer. 
2. 1 or 2 medium tomatillos, husk removed, and halved
3. 1-2 tbsp McCormick Montreal Steak Seasoning
4. Toasted bread

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375F. In an oven safe dish, place a single layer of parchment paper to prevent the veggies from sticking. Place the tomatillos, cut sides up, on the dish and pre-roast tomatillos by themselves for about 2-7 minutes. You can also use the broiler on HI for 3-4 minutes to hasten the roasting process. Remove the dish from the oven, move the tomatillo halves to the center of the dish and place a single later of zucchini wedges or chunks around it. Sprinkle liberally with seasoning. Bake for another 10-12 minutes until the zucchini begins to soften and starts to brown at the edges. As before, you can use the broiler on HI for 6-8 minutes to quicken the roasting process. Make sure you toss once, halfway during the roasting period. Also at that time, I remove the parchment paper as the salt makes the veggies sweat and there are enough juices in the dish to prevent the veggies from sticking. Once done, toss really well and make sure you get all the flavorful juices out as well to sop up with bread. While the recipe itself has no added fat. I was craving buttered toast today, so I ate my serving with crisply toasted sour dough bread, with Earth Balance Buttery Spread. 

Overall Reaction: This was a great modification of my standard roasted zucchini recipe. Zucchini is such an adaptable vegetable. It tastes great with the just lemon-pepper and this variation was along the same lines. The roasted tomatillo added just the right bit of tanginess and also added to the juices in the pan. The charring on the outside of the tomatillo added a lot of flavor which also enhanced the Zucchini flavor. I liked it!!   

Veggie Fact of the Day

Tomatillos belong to the same family as Deadly Nightshade (Atropa belladonna). 

 Belladonna has been used since the middle ages as a medicine as well as a poison. To the common man, this family is also known as the rather mundane family of potatoes, capsicum (bell peppers), eggplants and tomatoes. 

A tomatillos is a rather small fruit enclosed in a papery husk (calyx). It resembles an unripe tomato on the outside. Once cut, a tomatillo looks more like a gooseberry than a tomato, it is white and much meatier than a tomato.