Hatch Tomatillo Soup
It’s only April, but I am craving hatch peppers to be in season so badly right now! If you read my blog regularly, you know the two things I am obsessed with above all else are eggplant and hatch peppers – and, as if a sign from the food Gods above, when I opened my freezer door this morning guess what fell out? All my frozen hatch peppers from August!! Oh yes, this was a sign that whatever I cooked today had to be hatch-a-licious.
Every year when hatch pepper season rolls around, I make sure to roast and freeze as many peppers as possible. If you aren’t familiar with hatch peppers, you can read about them in my Hatch Soup post from August. If you don’t have any on hand, I did see that Trader Joe’s had a bunch in their frozen food section, or, use another mild pepper like Anaheim. Additionally, if you would like to know how to roast and peel them easily I have a post here that tells you how to do that!
My inspiration for this post (besides these beautiful peppers), was a Big Green Egg grilling class I took last weekend. I have had my Green Egg for about 2 years now, and have probably only used it a handful of times. (I know, I’m a little ashamed to admit that). So I thought the best way to get myself a bit more confident with it was to take a class, and boy was it helpful. We learned all sorts of things from grilling and smoking meat, making grilled guacamole, and tomatillo salsa. So I thought, why not take my hatch chiles, some tomatillos, and make some sort of smoky bean stew?
It turned out to be more of just a tomatillo salsa soup, but it was really yummy. When you are peeling the outer layer of the tomatillos off, make sure to wash them well because they are pretty sticky.
Oh… and I have to brag a little bit here…. check out how well my garden is doing!! I planted all this stuff about 2 months ago, and its growing like hot cakes! Eggplant, peas, okra, strawberries, asparagus, dill, green onion, peppers, oregano, thyme, mint, basil…. I inherited my mom’s green thumb :).
Okay, back to the post. Once the tomatillos and onion were done on the grill, I stuck them both in the vitamix with half of my hatch peppers, and blended until it was smooth. I didn’t bother peeling the tomatillos because I really wanted that charred flavor in the soup.
While I was blending these, I sauteed garlic and onion on the side with the other half of the hatch peppers. Then, I added 1 potato and cooked until it was soft. If you wanted to make just tomatillo salsa, I would suggest doing the recipe and just not adding the potato! It comes out really nice with the addition of the hatch peppers.
Then, I topped it off with chickpeas and chicken! Ta da!!
- 6 cloves of garlic, minced
- 1 onion, halved with skin on
- 2 lb. tomatillos, whole
- 2 cups hatch peppers that have been roasted and peeled, chopped
- 2 tbsp. olive oil
- salt and pepper, to taste
- 1 tsp. umami powder (optional, but this stuff is amazing, you can purchase on my site in my store)
- 1 potato, chopped (leave this and the following ingredients out and you can make tomatillo hatch salsa)
- 1 cup cooked chickpeas
- 1½ cups chicken, shredded
- Preheat your grill to 400 degrees F. Place whole tomatillos and 1 onion on the grill and cover. Cook for about 5-7 minutes on each side, until it browns. Remove and set aside. Chop the onion up for the next step.
- In a large pot, saute the grilled onion, garlic, and potato if you are making this into soup. Add in about 1 tsp. salt and pepper, and cook on medium heat for about 10 minutes. Then add in half of the hatch pepper and continue to cook another 5 minutes.
- In a blender, combine tomatillos, 1 tbsp. olive oil, 1 tsp. salt, and the remainder of the hatch peppers. Blend until smooth. Then add this into the pot.
- Using an immersion blender, smooth all ingredients until you reach the consistency you like. Adjust seasoning.
- Top with chicken and chickpeas if you wish, and serve!
This looks delicious Lizzy! 🙂
Yum, I love tomatillos, this soup sounds amazing, I would love it as a salsa too!
Lovely! I have never made tomatillo soup before. It looks and sounds fantastic!
I have a mild obsession w/ tomatillos although I’ve only used them raw. I’m very intrigued in this dish, especially the umami powder.
You have a beautiful garden. This soup looks so good. It looks simple and delicious.