Kitchen Garden Forum

Alan, I don't think I am being misleading, I didn't say they were the same, I said substitute. Tomatoes are not nice overipe either all squishy and watery.
grilled or fried tomatillos have a lovely sweet sour balance, which I certainly prefer to tasteless supermarket tomatoes. I like them just ripe, unripe they are a bit sharp. Maybe like other things flavour sometimes depends on feeding and care. Last year I tried the green type, this year I am trying the purple type too, which did you grow?

Sorry, NB, I didn't mean to criticise your suggestion; I just felt that some of the enthusiastic responses suggested that people were assuming that tomatillos were an "alternative" to tomatoes, and might end up disappointed (or pleasantly surprised, perhaps).

I have grown both green and purple - I think I preferred the purple.

Taste is, of course, often a matter of individual peerception, but there is another point about overripe tomatoes. The riper the tomato, the greater the amount of lycopene it ocntains and is released when eaten. This is something that acts as a prophylactic against several sorts of cancer and is recommended for people who are diagnosed with prostate cancer and breast cancer in particular. lycopene is also released in cooking: the more the tom is cooked, the greater the release of lycopene. Of course, you can obtainthe same by buying lycopene tablets and eating under-ripe or raw toms, but I like to grow beefsteak toms for ripening and cooking.

Very true Mike, much more lycopeine in home grown ripe tomatoes, than in supermarket picked underipe ones.

I think they are best described as an acquired taste - or one of those things that you really enjoy if they are part of your heritage and you have grown up with them or the recipes made with them.

I have grown them, harvested them and then....well they have stayed in storage while I wondered what to do with them. My memory is of their tangy/sweet almost salty taste. Actually now I wish I had grown some more this year!
Good luck!

I made a nice curry sauce with my surplus, they already have a natural sweet sour base which suits curry.

It sounds as if you make curries like my wife does, NB. I'm encouraged to grow tomatillos next year even more now.

After all these comments I can't wait to see if my two tiny tomatillo seedlings bear fruit this year. I'm still looking around supermarkets to see if we can find any to have an advanced sampling. Are they more likely to be sold in ethnic grocery stores?

I have never seen them ijn supermarkets Primrose. My tomatillos are looking quite strong now, but I think I put out the cape gooseberries a bit early they went a bit blue, those in the greenhouse are ok though.

Primrose wrote: Does anybody know whether they're ever available in supermarkets? With all the exotica they're selling these days I'm surprised nobody has started stocking them.

Hi Primrose

As far as I'm aware they can only be bought in tins. I have never tried them and no doubt never will.


http://www.mexgrocer.co.uk/Tomatillos-L ... 16170.html

By all means grow Tomatillos but I really cannot accept that they can even be compared with Tomatoes. Grow them and enjoy them but don't fool yourselves that they are a way round Blight in Tomatoes. Avoid blight maybe by not growing Tomatoes but this seems a very drastic action and the only one losing out is you the grower.
I have tasted two different Tomatillos and neither resembled in taste or look like Tomatoes and the only thing comparable is the shape.
JB.

Johnboy wrote:
I have tasted two different Tomatillos and neither resembled in taste or look like Tomatoes and the only thing comparable is the shape.
JB.

And then only when they're unwrapped

Hi Alan,
Oh so true!
JB.

I'm certainly far too fond of home grown tomatoes to abstain from growing them because of a possible threat of blight - I'd rather dessert my ideal organic principles and spray which I've now done for the past two summers and saved my crop. But it's always exciting to try a new vegetable or a different variety to see what it turns out like. I know somebody who has always grown the same variety of tomatoes for the past 20 years. That seems rather a shame to me when there are so many other exciting types to try.

Hi Primrose,
This is exactly what I was trying to say. Certainly embrace an addition to your list of vegetables grown but do not forsake the Tomatoes that you love because whatever has been said Tomatillos can not seriously described as a substitute for Tomatoes.
I certainly agree with trying different varieties of all sorts of vegetable.
With Tomatoes I am back to growing Harbinger and Ailsa Craig and Gardeners Delight (original strain.) this year oh with a few Alicante.
I am also trialling Hestia dwarf runner beans this year in tubs. I have previously grown them for other people but never grown them for myself before.
JB.