This salsa is a new personal favorite of mine as I’ve always wanted to do a combination of prickly pears and tomatillos. The blend of roasted tomatillos, sweetness of the prickly pear, and heat of arbols tasted perfect together.
I had a lot of fun using this with a variety of dishes. I initially used it as a topping for my grilled chicken, but also tried it on tacos, scrambled eggs, and even on toast.
You can roast your own tomatillos for this salsa, but on my first attempt I used pre-roasted tomatillos I bought from Red’s Roasters at the Rillito Farmers Market. The crew at Red’s Roasters are awesome and have been a great source for me to find roasted chiles, tomatillos, and onions each Sunday for my salsas. If you are in Tucson check them out at the Heirloom Markets and follow them on Facebook.
As for the prickly pear syrup, I have made my own sauce on occasions, but the season for harvesting prickly pear fruit only runs from the late summer through early winter. Cheri’s Desert Harvest out of Tucson is my go-to for prickly pear syrup when I can’t make my own. Their sauce has an amazing rich flavor! You can check out Cheri’s Desert Harvest website here.
INGREDIENTS
3 roasted Arbols, stem removed
13 roasted tomatillos
4 slices of red onion, roasted
½ cup of Prickly Pear syrup
2 cloves garlic
DIRECTIONS
Roast the arbols for 10 seconds on each side on a comal (should have little char, but not a lot). Roast tomatillos and red onion in oven or grill until moderately charred (keep a close watch as the red onion will finish before tomatillos, so take them out first or do separately). Add arbols, seven tomatillos, onion, and garlic to a blender and purée for 30 seconds. Then add prickly pear syrup and blend again for 30 seconds. Add the remaining six tomatillos and blend for 30 more seconds before serving.
Sunday Salsa 