Tomatillo Soup

by Mary Beth

We received a basket of tomatillos on Saturday, and I was excited because I had never used them before, but had always wanted to learn! They look like little green tomatoes in a flakey outer husk. I read a few recipes, and apparently you just pull off the husk and wash off the sticky residue before you cook with them.

Thanks to Runningwithtweezers for the recipe. I followed most of it and then used the solar oven to cook it.

Tomatillo and White Bean Soup

1 chopped onion

2 minced cloves garlic

1/2 jalapeño diced (no seeds)

Pinch red pepper flakes

15 tomatillos chopped

7 cups vegetable broth

Salt and pepper

1/4 cup chopped cilantro

Juice of 2 limes

Cook in solar oven. Then for the last 15 minutes of cooking add:

1 can white beans

1 cup corn

Cook again and serve warm. It tastes great with avocado on top or garnished with more cilantro.


The recipe was easy and the cooking should have been, but it was overcast so my beans never cooked despite being out in the oven all morning. So I brought them inside and tried to cook them in the crock pot all afternoon and they were still hard, so my husband had to grab a can at the store on the way home.

Likewise, the soup got warm, but never hot, even though it was out in the oven all afternoon. In the end I brought it inside, stirred in the corn and beans, and finished it off in the microwave. I haven’t looked at a weather forecast since we moved here (it’s almost always hot anyway) but I think I’m going to have to start!

Rating: good. Soups can be a hard sell here since it’s so hot already, but it was a cold day and the final soup was good and enjoyed even by the baby. Now if I can just get the hang of cooking with an eye on the weather!

Follow the rest of my adventures at: solarcookingchallenge.wordpress.com