WOW - Creamy (non dairy) Jalapeno Green Sauce (Vegan even) - Low Calorie! HMR Compliant!

A.K.A. the Green Stuff.

This is awesome.  I mean really good.  And it takes a fairly typical salsa/sauce at Taco Trucks (the green stuff) and makes it far more nutritious with far fewer calories.

The bottled green sauce you get at taco trucks and Taqueria's is pretty basic - boiled jalapenos and onion, pureed in a blender with vegetable oil and salt.  Sometimes with garlic, sometimes with cilantro.  Some may add avocado, but most don't, even though everyone thinks it's in there.  It is really good.  To cut the heat, you take out the seeds and the membranes before boiling (which is where most of the heat in a pepper is).  Boil them with the seeds and membranes the heat goes up - your choice.

I have made it without the oil, but it is missing something.  Missing more than the 500 calories a 1/4 cup of oil brings.  The oil adds fat, smoothness and tames the heat some.

Today, VICTORY.

The solution for not using oil?  Soft Silken Tofu.  Yes, Tofu.

Tofu gets you that smoothness, the texture that oil brings to the sauce.  It has just enough fat to taste great, not enough to bust your diet.  It has 180 calories for 12 ounces, not 500 calories for 1/4 cup.  Plus 16 grams of protein, some calcium, iron and other nutrients and minerals.

And it tastes great.  On to the show.

Ingredients

One lb fresh jalapenos, seeded and de-ribbed (wear vinyl/nitrile gloves when cutting and don't touch your eyes!
One onion, chopped (nothing special, it is getting boiled and pureed later).  I use white onions as that is more typical in mexican cooking, but whatever.  You could even use green onions, tops and all.
1 Box (12 oz) Soft Silken Tofu
Salt to taste
Garlic if you like
Cilantro if you like

Recipe
Boil jalapenos and onions for 20 minutes in sufficient water to keep covered
If you like, in the last 5 minutes, add peeled garlic to the boiling water.  As much garlic as you like.

Drain and blend all three ingredients for a minute.  Be careful - it will be hot.  I use a blender, you could use a food processor.  I think the blender gets it smoother.

While blending, scoop in the tofu.  Blend for another 30 seconds.

Add salt to taste (as in, add a tsp, taste, add more as you like, or don't)
Add fresh cilantro as desired, or not.

Serve warm, or put in the fridge to cool.  This will keep for at least a week

If you de-ribbed and de-seeded the jalapenos, the sauce will be quite mild, especially if you put it on food such as HRM Turkey Chili, eggs, as a veggie dip, etc.

Calorie count for the entire recipe 355 - 180 for the Tofu, 130 for the Jalapenos, 45 for the onion. So 355 calories for the entire sauce, which will be about 2 cups.  That is about 11 calories a tablespoon, 22 calories for two tbs.  So this is actually OK on the No Decisions HMR diet as a condiment!

Woo Hoo!

Green Sauce, a.k.a. Creamy Green Sauce a.k.a. Jalapeno Avocado Sauce a.k.a. ?????

There are a lot of names for this, none of them really very accurate, outside of “green sauce”, because it is, well, green. You will find this in only the finest taco joints.  And by finest, I mean good ones.

While smooth and luscious, there is no dairy, so not really creamy (although you could add crema or yogurt)

While it kind of tastes like perhaps there is avocado in it, there isn’t.  But you could put one in instead of the oil.

It is really just, well, DELICOUS!  Crazy Good!  The kind of stuff you go to a taco joint just to eat spoonfuls of!

So, what is it?

Jalepenos (or other pepper like Poblanos or Anaheims), onion, garlic, salt, fresh squeezed lime (if you like) and oil, cooked and pureed.

Super simple – make some tonight!

This is the mild version - if you follow the directions, it really will be pretty mild, unless your jalapenos are the insanely hot (sometimes they are)

Ingredients

• ·         1lb jalapenos (about 20 or so)
• ·         4-5 green onions, cut into 3 inch sections, whites and greens)
• ·         3-6 cloves garlic, peeled
• ·         ½ teaspoon salt
• ·         ¼ cup corn oil (or other neutral oil – no olive oil)
• ·         ½ lime juice, to taste

Recipe

• ·         Put on some disposable gloves
• ·         De-stem, de-seed and de-rib the jalapenos.  If you like your sauce spicier, skip step – just toss in whole.   WEAR GLOVES.  Really bad idea to do this and then rub your eyes.  #justsayin
• ·         Toss jalapenos, green onions into pot of water, bring to boil, then reduce to simmer and cook until soft (about 20 minutes)
• ·         For the last 1 minute or so, toss the peeled garlic cloves into the simmering water.  This will temper the raw garlic taste
• ·         Drain, let cool
• ·         If you did not de-stem, etc earlier, do so now.  The more seeds and ribs you scrape out, the milder it will be.  Like it spicier?  Leave some or all of that out.  But do get rid of the stems
• ·         Toss everything into blender, add salt, puree at low speed
• ·         When things are getting nice and pureed, start slowly adding oil to mixture in blender.  Once added, speed up the blender.  Basically your making a nice emulsion so the oil does not separate out of the sauce
• ·         Taste, add more salt or squeeze some lime juice into the mix while blending.  The lime juice will brighten up the flavors.  Not sure it needs it, be sure to start with just a half lime.  You could use a tablespoon of white vinegar

Options

If too spicy, cut with greek yogurt or sour cream or add advocados.  Yogurt adds it's own tang and was generally preferred in our house.  If you were planning on using yogurt, especially yogurt with fat in it, I would probably reduce the amount of oil.  Same if your adding advocados

1 cup cilantro is a very nice contribution - just put it in at the start of the blending stage.

I like it better without the lime, but to each their own

If you want to have this on chips, remember you want El Milagro "Totopos" homestyle chips.  Really you do.

EAT IT

Another Fish Taco Recipe

From Anolon - the recipe for the fish is typical, but the salsa recipe looks really good.  Definitely worth trying, especially during peach season