Green Chile Paste

In the spirit of the ever-useful tomato paste comes green chile paste. The hardest part about making this is trying not to eat the whole batch with a spoon when it’s done! Spread it on crackers, mix it into eggs, or slather it over potatoes, you’ll be making green chile paste over and over. And it’s a great way to preserve the harvest! Two pounds of green chiles compact to one cup of green chile paste, and that’s a lot of flavor in a small package, which makes this perfect for those with limited freezer space.

You can make green chile paste chunky or smooth, depending upon your personal preference.

Ingredients

(Makes about one cup of paste)

You can make green chile paste using fresh or roasted green chiles. It takes less time to make the paste using pre-roasted green chiles, but using fresh green chiles produces a taste that is milder and a bit sweeter because the baked garlic tastes more mellow, which might appeal to you at times.

• Green chiles, fresh or roasted (see below for amount)
• 6 cloves garlic
• Olive oil

Slice fresh green chiles thin and roast with garlic cloves.

Preparation, fresh

1. De-seed 2 pounds of fresh green chiles and slice thin, lengthwise.
2. Peel the garlic.
3. Place the garlic and sliced green chiles on a baking sheet and bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about 20 minutes. Turn them and bake for another 10 minutes until soft, shrunken, and lightly browned. (Note that you are not roasting the chiles here — you’re just baking them to dry them out a bit and make them softer.)
4. Place the baked green chiles and garlic in a food processor or high speed blender with 4 tablespoons of olive oil and process until the desired consistency is reached; if it is too thin add more olive oil a teaspoon at a time. You will need to scrape the paste down as it will be thick.

Preparation, roasted

1. De-seed and skin about 1 1/3 pounds of roasted green chiles.
2. Place the green chiles and peeled, fresh garlic in a food processor or high speed blender with 2 tablespoons of olive oil and process until the desired consistency is reached. If it is too thick, add more olive oil a teaspoon at a time.

That’s really all there is to it. The paste doesn’t even need additional herbs or spices, including salt. The green chiles, garlic, and oil are all you need. Or, you can opt to leave the garlic out!

We encourage you to make a batch using both the fresh and roasted methods and see which one you like the best.

Recipe and photos by Christina Keibler.