I saw this salsa in an Instagram reel by laalmendracatering and thought I’d give her version of the classic arbol heavy orange sauce a try.
I toasted 12 arbol and 4 guajillo in a bit of avocado oil until they changed color and then put them in a bowl and poured boiling water over them.
I pan-roasted 13 tomatillos, 1/2 white onion and 4 cloves of garlic in the same pan/oil until they got good and charred (the second pic is about 1/2 thru the process)
I put the dried peppers in my nutribullet with 4 tomatillos until I got a fairly loose but smooth paste.
I put the roasted veg in the Cuisinart and whizzed it a bit. I added the dried pepper paste and whizzed some more.
The The Secret Ingredient!! Coffee!
The originator of this recipe used a scant spoonful of instant coffee. I didn’t have any, but I brewed up an ounce or so of really strong coffee and added it with some salt and whizzed to a pretty smooth consistency.
Now I usually find the arbol heavy salsas intolerably hot with a weird almost chemical aftertaste. And, indeed, at first taste, I could hardly stand it.
But a couple of days in the fridge and a bit more salt seems to have mellowed it out quite a bit.
It goes really well on the vegan burritos I’ve started making in batches and freezing and also on the re-fried bean, steamed veggie, avocado and onion tacos that are my staple dinner when I’m feeling lazy.
It also help to actually put the salsa ON something, rather that eating it by the spoonful.
I have to say, I didn’t find the coffee did anything for the salsa. I couldn’t even taste it. Perhaps the arbols overwhelmed it, maybe I didn’t add enough coffee or my taste bud are just inept.
Maybe someone else will give it a try and report back…
Damn! ETA, sorry to have misspelled guajillo in the title.
ayopassthat
Picture #3: How did you make red salsa from green tomatillos?
fawning_
Thanks for sharing! I love árbol salsas so I cant wait to try my hand at making it.
tardigrsde
I came back to say that this is rapidly becoming one of the top 5 salsas that I’ve made. I think all the tomatillos and quajillos really tamed this arbol heavy salsa for my taste.
I’m going to try making this same salsa again using tomatoes instead of tomatillos and see what it’s like. If it’s any good, I post in the sub.
4 Comments
[Salsa 1/3](https://www.reddit.com/r/SalsaSnobs/comments/y6wbb4/roasted_tomato_and_tomatillo_salsa_with_dried_and/) is from a week ago.
I saw this salsa in an Instagram reel by laalmendracatering and thought I’d give her version of the classic arbol heavy orange sauce a try.
I toasted 12 arbol and 4 guajillo in a bit of avocado oil until they changed color and then put them in a bowl and poured boiling water over them.
I pan-roasted 13 tomatillos, 1/2 white onion and 4 cloves of garlic in the same pan/oil until they got good and charred (the second pic is about 1/2 thru the process)
I put the dried peppers in my nutribullet with 4 tomatillos until I got a fairly loose but smooth paste.
I put the roasted veg in the Cuisinart and whizzed it a bit. I added the dried pepper paste and whizzed some more.
The The Secret Ingredient!! Coffee!
The originator of this recipe used a scant spoonful of instant coffee. I didn’t have any, but I brewed up an ounce or so of really strong coffee and added it with some salt and whizzed to a pretty smooth consistency.
Now I usually find the arbol heavy salsas intolerably hot with a weird almost chemical aftertaste. And, indeed, at first taste, I could hardly stand it.
But a couple of days in the fridge and a bit more salt seems to have mellowed it out quite a bit.
It goes really well on the vegan burritos I’ve started making in batches and freezing and also on the re-fried bean, steamed veggie, avocado and onion tacos that are my staple dinner when I’m feeling lazy.
It also help to actually put the salsa ON something, rather that eating it by the spoonful.
I have to say, I didn’t find the coffee did anything for the salsa. I couldn’t even taste it. Perhaps the arbols overwhelmed it, maybe I didn’t add enough coffee or my taste bud are just inept.
Maybe someone else will give it a try and report back…
Damn! ETA, sorry to have misspelled guajillo in the title.
Picture #3: How did you make red salsa from green tomatillos?
Thanks for sharing! I love árbol salsas so I cant wait to try my hand at making it.
I came back to say that this is rapidly becoming one of the top 5 salsas that I’ve made. I think all the tomatillos and quajillos really tamed this arbol heavy salsa for my taste.
I’m going to try making this same salsa again using tomatoes instead of tomatillos and see what it’s like. If it’s any good, I post in the sub.