Creamy Cilantro Lime Dressing
This creamy cilantro lime dressing can be whipped up in less than 15 minutes and the flavors are perfect for salads, tacos, burritos, or just for dipping!
Well, I guess it’s time I introduced you to my favorite salad dressing in the history of ever.
Creamy cilantro lime dressing.
It’s a thing. And it’s a GOOD thing.
If you’ve ever ordered a sweet pork salad at Cafe Rio (hold me) and gone with the creamy dressing (the only clear choice), you’ll understand how this version is channeling some serious Cafe Rio vibes.
It’s creamy. It’s ranchy. It’s cilantro-y. It’s perfect.
We eat this stuff over so many things:
-Everyday ground beef tacos (try it, you’ll die)
-Burritos, salads or tacos made with this Instant Pot Smoky Chicken
–BBQ chicken salad cilantro lime rice bowls
–Mexican chopped salad (I regularly swap out the cilantro vinaigrette in that recipe for this creamy dressing)
Additionally, it’s my kids go-to choice for dipping vegetables. Meaning, we keep a jar of it in the fridge at all times.
And many nights when we pull out everything from the fridge for leftover dinner night which has the potential to be scary and invoke trauma, this creamy cilantro lime dressing is the glue that holds it all together and makes the leftover bits and pieces actually yummy.
This, and a lot of cheese.
In fact that meal you see up above is exactly what I’m talking about. Leftover shredded pork with a hacked version of this quinoa taco “meat” and some toppings. So good I wanted to cry.
Last year when I was regularly feeding 100 construction workers monthly lunches, their favorite meal was a Cafe Rio-style lineup of cilantro lime rice, black beans, tomatillo pork, guac, sour cream, tomatoes, tortilla chips, etc.
But the element that always got the craziest amount of praise was this cilantro lime dressing.
I got really, really good at whipping up an enormous gallon-size batch of this to fill the large-and-in-charge squeeze bottles. And I was never sad if there was dressing left over.
Also, you can throw in an avocado for a super green, super creamy, avocado cilantro lime version (just thin out the dressing with a bit more buttermilk). AMAZING!
One Year Ago: Caramel Snickers Cheesecake Bars
Two Years Ago: Delicious No-Bake Cookie Dough Bites
Three Years Ago: Foil Packet Sweet Potato Tacos
Four Years Ago: Easy Brazilian Cheese Bread {Pao de Queijo}
Five Years Ago: Apple Cinnamon Waffles with Cinnamon Syrup
Creamy Cilantro Lime Dressing
Ingredients
- ½ cup buttermilk
- ½ cup mayonnaise, I use light mayo
- ½ cup sour cream
- ¼ cup salsa verde or green enchilada sauce (see note)
- 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice, from about 1 medium lime
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon dried parsley
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- Pinch of dried dill, about 1/8 teaspoon
- Pinch of salt, I use coarse, kosher salt
- Pinch of black pepper, I use coarsely ground black pepper
- ½ cup coarsely chopped cilantro
- 1 green onion, white and green parts coarsely chopped, or small bunch of chives
Instructions
- Combine all the ingredients in a blender and process until smooth. Thin with additional buttermilk, milk, or lime juice, if you want to adjust the consistency.
- Refrigerate until ready to serve (the taste gets better with time – it can be made several days in advance).
Notes
Recommended Products
Recipe Source: from Mel’s Kitchen Cafe (adapted over the years from this recipe at Our Best Bites)
I made this recipe yesterday for my daughter’s 3rd birthday. I had five separate people ask me to send them the recipe. The lime flavor is very subtle. If you are a cilantro lover this dressing is everything you want and more. While I had salad at the party most people were eating this dressing straight with taco chips. 100% a must make!
A++++ this dressing is soo good. Absolutely love it. I could drink it – it’s that good! Thank you for sharing it.
Amazing recipe, Mel! Better than our favorite Mexican restaurant. Thanks for sharing!
This dressing is so good! It tastes very similar to Cafe Rio’s and is better than Costa Vida’s. Thank you Mel!
I love this stuff!!!!! Do you think it could be frozen?
Sometimes freezing food that’s high in dairy can mean it has a slightly grainy or separated consistency after thawing, but it’s worth a try!
Hiiii, I have questions.
Im making this for about 25 people (about half adults, half kids ages 2-17).
1) How many batches of this dressing would I need to make for rice bowls/salads? I’m planning on also bringing ranch dressing for anyone who wants something a little more basic just in case…
2) Also, for your cilantro lime rice, would you quadruple your recipe (it says serves 6 as a side dish)? I’m a little nervous to make such a big quantity, but I figure if I make a double batch in two separate pans, the rice won’t get all sticky and mushy like can happen with big quantities of rice… any input you have would be greatly appreciated!! <3
As a side note, I'm making one batch of your cafe rio sweet pork and one batch of your slow cooker mexican beef to go along with all this and i can't wait to eat all this goodness 🙂
Sounds delicious, Jacelyn! For 25 people, I’d double the cilantro lime dressing (if you’re also serving ranch, that should be plenty). And the cilantro lime rice does surprisingly well as a large batch if you saute the rice in a little butter before adding the liquid. It doesn’t get mushy or weird. For 25 people, I’d probably triple the cilantro lime rice recipe.
I just made this for the second time in 2 weeks. It’s absolutely delicious! And I’m not a cilantro lover. But I do have a question, it’s mentioned in the recipe what to do to thin it down but I would actually like it thicker. Any suggestions?
Try decreasing the buttermilk – that should help!
Great! Made it with the copycat cafe rio sweet pork.
I’m one of the weird ones who does NOT care for the flavor of cilantro, but oddly the real Cafe Rio stuff does not taste like cilantro to me ♀️ Does this recipe have a strong cilantro flavor to it or does it blend in like CR?
I think the flavor is subtle, but you might want to use half cilantro/half parsley.
When I can get a nice ripe translucent tomatillo, I like to put that in this dressing, also. Fresh from the garden is best, however, sometimes they ripen up nicely on the counter when you buy them at the grocery store. They are sweeter when ripe. A little bitter when hard and under-ripe.
I also sometimes put in an Anaheim chili or jalapeno instead of the green salsa.
My daughter would drink this as a beverage if I’d let her..
I just made the lime dressing very good going to put it on spinach salad tonight
Delicious!
When my printer hasn’t stopped, I know I’ve found a site I love, with recipes I can’t wait to make! All so yummy!
So yummy!! Can you share how you do your quinoa “taco meat”? Yours doesn’t look as baked and crunchy as the recipe you linked to. I love everything you’ve posted about quinoa and would love that recipe!
I used that recipe but I just didn’t layer it as thin on the baking sheet so it didn’t get quite as crunchy and golden.
Absolutely delicious! Best dressing! I forgot to buy lime and made with lemon juice, next time I’ll do with lime. I ate half a head iceberg lettuce with it. Thanks, Mel.
Wonderful recipe! Made it last night and used it tonight for cut up veggies. Sorry, correction ate it with everything ! Our fam had BLT sammies and french fries and I put it on everything!. It’s great on a BLT! Thank you so much. Gonna make pork carnitias tomorrow night so it will be great on them as well.
On a BLT!! Yum!!
Doesn’t this remind you of Cafe Rio? Or is it a different flavor?
Yes, it reminds me of Cafe Rio. It’s not exactly the same but pretty darn close.
This is SO good! It’s going to be a staple in my fridge this summer! Now, if I can just get my kids to switch from bottled ranch as a veggie dip to this I’ll really be winning!
Don’t worry, my kids are still heavy on the bottled ranch stuff, too. 🙂
This was so easy and Mmm-Mmmm good!!
Finally had the chance to try this and YUM!!!!! Thank you!!!!
Thanks, Alissa!
Hi! I LOVE this dressing! ….Along with basically everything that you post haha (Thank you!!) How long would you say the dressing will last in the refrigerator before going bad? Thanks in advance!
A lot depends on how fresh the ingredients are that you used in the dressing, but I’d say it’s probably good for 7-10 days or so?
Made tacos for lunch, and had this in my tortilla. SO AMAZING!!
Glad you loved it – it’s delicious on tacos, I agree!
Used this recipe for a lunchtime catering job this week. Served it over poached sliced chicken breasts. My dressing was more green than the photo so it did look a little weird, but everyone enjoyed it. I also didn’t have any salsa verde so I used a can of diced mild green chiles. I made this recipe another day using fresh tarragon ( less amount than the cilantro), served it over salmon. It’s a great base recipe open to all sorts of interpretations. Will be using whatever green herbs we have growing in the garden this summer.
Glad it worked out well!
2 things:
This sauce/dressing/dip: WOW! I added a 2nd avocado to make it more dip-able, which I wouldn’t necessarily recommend b/c it throws off the overall amazing-ness just slightly, but still…avocados are only ripe for like 2 seconds, so I had to do it. 🙂
And also, you were just brilliant over at the Happy Healthy Mom Summit today. I loved getting to hear from you!
Thank you so much, Nancy!
Could you use kefir instead of buttermilk? I do in pancakes, etc? Just wondering because I do not have any buttermilk. Thanks?
Yes!
This dressing looks really good. But more importantly, how in the world did you get signed up to feed 100 hungry (and lucky) construction workers?! Bless your soul. From experience, feeding my one hungry construction worker was work enough. He was like a bottomless pit some times!
Haha, tell me about it! They were building a new temple (for my faith) in my area and the missionaries were looking for people to feed them as a sign of support. It ended up being one of the most fun, rewarding things we’ve ever done (but oh my gosh, so much work).
I am fascinated about this. What kind of recipes do you use to feed that many people?!
Most of the recipes were ones that can be made in bulk in an electric roaster. So, pulled pork on buns, turkey breasts (for Thanksgiving meal), chili and cornbread. That type of thing. 🙂
Have you ever used a buttermilk substitute? I have everything but the buttermilk and really don’t want to go to the store
Maybe try equal parts sour cream and milk for the buttermilk
This dressing !!! If it gets better over time, I will be drinking it 🙂 . Made it exactly per recipe and it is wonderful. Thanks, Mel!
Yay, Liz!! So happy you loved it.
This recipe looks great! I’m on a carb free diet and buttermilk has a lot of carbs. Can you simply use sour cream or additional mayo instead?
You can definitely try!
Yippee!!
How long does it keep in the fridge?
It kind of depends on the freshness of your ingredients, but probably 1-2 weeks.
This recipe looks so yummy! Do you think it would freeze well? Thanks for always being us amazing recipes!!
I haven’t tried freezing it because we go through it so fast…I don’t know how all the dairy will fare after being frozen.
Mayo does not freeze well.
How important is the green onion? I have everything else on hand and I want to make this NOW – without dragging two three year olds to the store for one green onion .
You could probably get by without it.
I need more details on how you did lunches for the construction workers. I’ve got to feed 50 at the end of the month, and this just might be the ticket.
Let me know if you have specific questions! I planned menus I could farm “pieces” out to people and tried to make them as simple as possible. 🙂
Just when I was going to give up mayo based dressings! Meh, I’ll give them up next year. Because I love cilantro. I’m making this tonight!! Thanks Mel! I know I’ll love it!
Haha, I hope you love it! And I’m betting you could sub in Greek yogurt or additional sour cream for the mayo? 🙂
Good idea! Thanks Mel!
Oh Mel, you use such perfect adjectives to explain why everyone will love this dressing ! I am ALMOST convinced but I DO NOT like cilantro at all- in anything. Do you think doubling on the parsley or just leaving it out would make a big difference in selling the taste?? It sounds so perfect for the tacos & Mexican chopped salad (a huge favorite of mine!) Thanks for all your wonderful recipes & working so hard to share them with us. Judy
Maybe try using an equal amount of fresh parsley instead of cilantro (in addition to the dried parsley in the recipe)? I mean, the flavor will be different, but you’ll still have a creamy, delicious dressing. Let me know if you try it!
Judy, hating cilantro is a real thing. Seriously! I hate it too—even a tiny tiny bit can spoil a bite of something delicious. One day I looked up cilantro substitutes and learned that I’m not alone. Some folks process aldehydes differently and because of that cilantro tastes soapy. Apparently normal tasters get a lemony pepper taste. Sigh. But I’m glad to know I’m not just fussy. It’s genetic so you probably have a family member who is in the hater camp with you. I may try this dressing without the cilantro.
Oh, I so love this!! Cilantro lime dressing totally deserves its own post! Thanks for the fun details and ideas for different meals to go with it! Way to go on the massive lunches! You’re amazing!!