This black bean and roasted tomatillo soup is a delicious Mexican style soup! Its zesty flavor comes from roasting tomatillos with onions and garlic.
It’s taken a while, but I finally love cooking. I used to be the impatient type, only wanting to cook for as little time as possible so I could enjoy the best part – the eating. Alex has always loved the process, so he’s had to drag me through it, helping me learn how to cut vegetables so that it’s soothing instead of maddening, helping me resist the urge to watch the pot until it boils, or hover over piping hot baked goodies asking whether they’re cool enough to sample yet. Thank goodness that’s worn off, little by little. I’m finally starting to understand the rhythm and waiting in cooking. Keep reading for what I learned about the rhythm of cooking in this delicious black bean and tomatillo soup.
Related: Vegetarian Tortilla Soup
First, what are tomatillos?
Tomatillos are little fruits that are native to Mexico, but they’re also grown in the US. They look like green, unripe tomatoes with a dry husk that wraps around the outside (hence their nickname, husk tomatoes). Tomatillos are bright green and taste acidic, a little less sweet than a typical tomato. They’re also the main ingredient for salsa verde, if you’re a salsa verde lover!
We picked up our tomatillos at our farmer’s market – check one near you to see if they’re in season! You can also find them at the grocery in the produce section when they’re in season. Tomatillos are typically in season in the fall in America; you’ll have to ask at your local grocery or farmer’s market for specifics.
Tips for roasting tomatillos
A few years ago, I would have taken a shortcut on a roasted tomatillo soup. Why waste the time roasting the veggies? Just throw them in the pot and cook them down as fast as possible. Those of you more experienced chefs know that the more time invested in a recipe, generally the better it tastes. So these days we’re okay with taking the extra time to roast, or simmer, or chop. It feels good to make it the right way if there’s time, instead of trying to take the easy way out.
Roasting tomatillos is very simple. First, remove the papery husks from the tomatillos, which easily slide off using your fingers. After you’ve removed the husk, you’ll notice a sticky film on the surface of the tomatillo. Rinse the tomatillos under warm water and it comes right off! Then, roughly chop the tomatillos and place them on a parchment lined baking sheet. This recipe involves roasting tomatillos with onions, garlic, and jalapeno peppers, which imparts a fantastic flavor!
How to make tomatillo soup
This is a lovely tomatillo soup, and really doesn’t take too much time to put together, outside of roasting tomatillos and veggies for about 20 minutes. It’s based on a recipe from the talented Gwyneth Paltrow, and has a subtle, intriguing flavor. After you roast the tomatillos, you blend together the roasted veggies with veggie broth to use as the base of the soup. Then you add black beans and hominy, and simmer until warmed through.
The garnishes are where this soup really shines: radishes, cilantro and lime bring a zesty flavor that you won’t be able to stop eating! Or, try swirling in Homemade Mexican Crema or adding Tortilla Strips for a crunch.
Looking for more tomatillo recipes?
Outside of this tomatillo soup, here are a few more tomatillo recipes on A Couple Cooks:
- Homemade Tomatillo Salsa with Fresh Tomatillos
- Artichoke & Quinoa Vegetarian Enchiladas
- Roasted Tomatillo Salsa (Salsa Verde)
This recipe is…
This roasted tomatillo soup is vegetarian, gluten-free, vegan, plant-based, and dairy-ree.
Print
Black Bean & Roasted Tomatillo Soup
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 35 minutes
- Total Time: 50 minutes
- Yield: 4 1x
Description
This black bean and roasted tomatillo soup is a delicious Mexican style soup! Its zesty flavor comes from roasting tomatillos with onions and garlic.
Ingredients
- 12 small tomatillos
- 2 red onions
- 2 jalapeno peppers
- 3 garlic cloves
- Olive oil
- Kosher salt
- 15-ounce can black beans (or 1 ½ cups cooked black beans)
- 15-ounce can hominy
- 8 radishes
- 3 green onions
- ¼ cup cilantro, chopped + 3 sprigs
- 1 quart vegetable broth
- Kosher salt
- Fresh ground black pepper
- 1 lime
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 450°F.
- Remove the husks from the tomatillos, rinse them, then roughly chop them. Chop the red onions, and jalapeno peppers (remove the seeds). Cut the garlic cloves into quarters.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Place the chopped veggies on the sheet, drizzle with enough olive oil to coat, and sprinkle with kosher salt. Roast until soft and slightly browned, about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Meanwhile, drain and rinse the hominy and black beans. Also, prepare the garnishes: thinly slice the radishes and green onions, and chop the cilantro.
- Add the roasted vegetables to a large pot. Add the vegetable broth, and use an immersion blender to puree until fully blended (alternatively, transfer the hot soup to a blender, then blend and return it to the pot).
- Add 3 sprigs of cilantro and the hominy and black beans. Bring the mixture to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer for 15 minutes. Season with kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper.
- Remove the cilantro sprigs. Pour into bowls, and garnish with green onions, radishes, cilantro, and fresh-squeezed lime juice.
Notes
Adapted from It’s All Good by Gwyneth Paltrow and Julia Turshen
- Category: Soup
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: Mexican Inspired
Keywords: Tomatillo Soup, Mexican Soup, Roasting Tomatillos, Black Bean Soup, Hominy Soup, Hominy, Tomatillo Recipes, Vegetarian Soup, Healthy Soup
This is so pretty! The tomatillos are so gorgeous! I have never cook with them, but this make me want too. Such a warm and cozy soup!
Thank you, Tieghan! We haven’t used tomatillos a lot, but have loved everything we’ve made with them. You should try them out! :)
Tomatillos add such wonderful flavor. I love how you pureed the whole mixture to make the soup creamy without adding cream. Featuring this on my Facebook page tomorrow.
That is so nice – thank you, Dara!
This looks so wonderfully comforting. Love it!
This sounds great! Definitely trying it soon. I personally do not like hominy (I think it’s the texture) so I imagine I’ll either substitute corn or chickpeas….Or just leave it out. I’ve never had tomatillos in anything other than green salsa, so I’m excited to try it out. Thanks!
I’ve never been too big on hominy either, but Sonja convinced me we should try it in this soup. It turned out I really liked it; if you’re feeling wild you should try it :)
You two are so cool.
Aww, thanks, Vanessa! :)
I have been working my way through “It’s All Good”, but somehow I missed this recipe. I can’t wait to try it!
Yes! It is actually called “Easiest Pozole” in the cookbook :)
This looks delicious! Do you think you could use canned tomatillos? Hispanic flavors and ingredients haven’t quite made it over here to the UK – much to this California girls frustration! However I did manage to get a big can of them shipped over courtesy of the parents!
Hmm, interesting thought! I would think you could use canned tomatillos, but we’ve never tried it! The only thing would be to figure out the quantity; I’m not sure what size of cans you have, so you might have to guess. Let us know if you try it out! Glad to hear you’re a tomatillo fan — maybe they’ll start to appear in the UK someday :)
Your pictures are gorgeous! I’ve never cooked with tomatillos but this soup looks so light and fresh I’m sure I’d love it :)
Thank you so much! This is a great starter tomatillo recipe — good for getting your feet wet :) Let us know if you try it out!
Tomatillos, hominy, and black beans are some of my favorite ingredients to cook with – how have I never thought to combine them all into one kick-ass soup? Thanks for sharing such a beautiful recipe, I can’t wait to try this one out!
You’re welcome! Let us know if you try it out :)
We made this tonight and it was delicious! Next time I may keep some of the jalapeño seeds/ribs to give it a little “kick”! Thanks for posting!