The Best Cilantro Lime Dressing Recipe
This vibrant and fresh Creamy Cilantro Lime Dressing is full of tangy flavor. The perfect addition to your next taco salad, burrito bowl, or drizzled on top of some crispy fish tacos.
It's an easy recipe with just a handful of ingredients you can easily find at the grocery store.
What Is Creamy Cilantro Dressing Made Of?
Nothing but the fresh and simple ingredients for this flavorful sauce. It's seriously so much better than any store-bought dressing! The real stars of the show are fresh cilantro and citrusy lime juice. It also includes avocado, jalapeno, avocado oil, apple cider vinegar, sour cream, garlic, and kosher salt.
It's one of my favorite homemade salad dressings because all these ingredients are the perfect complement to one another.
What To Serve With Creamy Cilantro Dressing
There are so many great ways to use this creamy cilantro dressing recipe. Whether you're looking for a flavorful healthy dinner or want to add it to your favorite salad, here are a few ideas you can try yourself:
- My Recipe for Easy Taco Pasta Salad
- Burrito Bowls with Ground Beef or Pork
- As A Dipping Sauce For Tortilla Chips or Veggies
- Fish Tacos
- Cheese or Chicken Quesadillas
- Cilantro Lime Rice
- Drizzle It On Black Beans
Other Ingredients You Could Add To Your Homemade Dressing
This is a great base recipe that you can have a lot of fun with. I always like to find things in my fridge to add to my recipes if I'm feeling spontaneous. If you're in the mood to mix things up a bit, here is a list of ingredients you could potentially include with your creamy salad dressing.
- Green Onion - This would be an especially nice addition if you want to use it more for a dip.
- Fresh Herbs - The sky is the limit here! You can add herbs other than cilantro. Try chives, parsley, dill, or even fresh basil!
- Mayonnaise - Although I haven't tried it this way myself, I know a lot of people love to use mayo in homemade sauces. If you decide to go this route I would leave out the sour cream, and use a half cup of mayonnaise instead.
- Green Salsa - Spice it up a bit more by adding some green salsa to your creamy sauce. Perfect for drizzling on fish tacos.
- Hot Sauce - You can really add some pep with a few dashes of Cholula or even Sriracha.
Why Does My Salad Dressing Taste Bitter?
Wondering why your creamy dressing tastes bitter? When I was first testing this recipe I tried to make it with greek yogurt and olive oil. Surprisingly both of those ingredients combined with everything else created a more bitter taste to this dressing. So instead of yogurt, I used sour cream.
As for the olive oil, I swapped it for avocado oil. It's a great neutral oil that really goes well with all of the other ingredients. If it still tastes too bitter, you can also skip the apple cider vinegar.
Should My Dressing Be This Thick?
Yes. This dressing is on the thicker side, which makes it great for a multitude of uses. If you want more of a thin vinaigrette that's better suited for salads, you will want to skip the sour cream and avocado.
I would instead add more avocado oil to help thin it out. That's the beautiful thing about cooking, you can always adjust things to suit your mood.
How Long Will The Dressing Last In The Fridge?
This dressing will only last for about 48 hours in the fridge. This is mostly because the recipe uses fresh avocado. Avocados are notorious for spoiling fairly quickly after being cut open and it will happen with this dressing too, unfortunately.
If you want to stretch out the amount of time that you can keep this homemade dressing, you can omit the avocado and it should keep for about 5 days. Make sure you are using an airtight container. I typically keep mine in a mason jar.
Tools Needed:
- Food Processor or Blender
- Cutting Board
- Knife
- Mason Jar with Tight-fitting Lid
Creamy Cilantro Lime Salad Dressing
Ingredients
- ½ Bunch Fresh Cilantro
- ½ Avocado
- ½ Cup Sour Cream
- 2 Limes (Juiced)
- 1 ½ teaspoon Minced Fresh Garlic
- 2 oz. Avocado Oil
- 1 oz. Apple Cider Vinegar
- 1 Jalapeno (deseeded)
- ½ teaspoon Kosher Salt
Instructions
- Start by cutting your jalapeno in half length-wise. Remove the stem and seeds.
- Combine the cilantro and all of the other ingredients in your food processor or blender. Pulse or blend until completely smooth.
- Transfer to a mason jar and use a spoon to drizzle on your favorite salad or tacos. You can also pour it into a small shallow dish if used as a dip.
- Refrigerate any unused dressing immediately.
Notes
Nutrition
Making this recipe? Please tag me on Instagram @natashasfoodadventures so I can see your wonderful creations! I love getting to know you guys and can’t wait to see which recipe you will make next.
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