This is a healthier Cafe Rio lime cilantro ranch dressing recipe, made with avocados, tomatillos, limes, cilantro, and ranch dressing mix.
This is my go to recipe for creamy avocado salad dressing. We usually use it for our favorite salads, and it goes AMAZINGLY well with tacos and Mexican food.
There's no mayonnaise in this dressing, avocados are the main creamy base, along with the tomatillos. It's definitley not as thick as avocado lime crema, but I do like to add a little sour cream or plain greek yogurt to make it more creamy. It's really good on top of Healthy Taco Soup!
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What To Expect
- Taste: Tart from the limes and tomatillos, creamy from the avocados, seasoned from the ranch dressing mix. You can easily make it spicy with some jalapeños as well!
- Ease: Beginner recipe, prepping the ingredients and blending them together are so easy!
- Time: It takes 5 minutes to whip up this dressing, it's SO quick.
🛒 Key Ingredients
- Avocados - make sure they're ripe and soft, hard ones won't work for this recipe! At the store, make sure when you squeeze them lightly they aren't rock hard, but give a little bit.
- Limes - add flavor and acidity to the dressing.
- Tomatillos - add flavor and a nice tart flavor that isn't as strong as limes.
- Ranch Dressing Mix - a dry powdered salad dressing mix packet that can be found in the salad dressing isle of many American grocery stores.
See the recipe card below for full information on ingredients and quantities.
✏️ Substitutions & Variations
- Sour Cream - Can be swapped out with plain greek yogurt (I do this a lot for a protein boost) or plain plant based unsweetened milk.
- Add a chopped jalapeño or a pinch or two of red pepper flakes to make the dressing spicy!
🧑🍳 Instructions
- Step 1. Wash and chop the tomatillos into quarters, halve the avocado and scoop out the inside, and slice the lime.
- Step 2. Combine the tomatillos, avocado halves, ranch dressing mix, salt & pepper, garlic, lime juice, and cilantro together into a blender or a bowl. Optional: also add in sour cream or plain greek yogurt.
- Step 3. You can blend it with an immersion blender or in a regular blender.
- Step 4. Add in water and blend or whisk until it's the desired consistency.
- Step 5. Transfer to a jar or serving container, and keep refrigerated until ready to use. Enjoy!
📌 Top Tips & Hacks
- Glass mason jars with leak proof lids are my favorite to store the salad dressing in, it makes it so easy to refrigerate.
- This is freezer friendly! It makes 1 pint (475 mL), so you can double or triple the recipe to freeze some for later.
❓Frequently Asked Questions
Refrigerated: 3-4 days
Frozen: 3 months
If you use greek yogurt instead of sour cream, it is a decently healthy salad dressing recipe. Everything in moderation, a serving size would be 2-4 Tablespoons at most.
You can use plant based milk, and instead of the ranch mix use a blend of garlic, onion powder, and dried parsley.
- Grilled meats: we love it drizzled over grilled chicken, steak, or pork.
- Salad - we looove this dressing over a fresh green salad with beans and rice!
- Tacos or burritos
🌿 More Fresh & Tasty Recipes
📝 Printable Recipe
Avocado Lime Ranch Dressing
Ingredients
- 1 avocado 87 g
- 3-4 small chopped tomatillos (1 cup) 168 g
- ¼ cup sour cream or plain greek yogurt (or plant based milk)
- 2 Tablespoons Ranch Dressing Mix
- 2 Tablespoons lime juice 25 g
- 2 Tablespoons chopped cilantro 2 g
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon ground pepper
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup water
- optional: chopped jalapeño
Instructions
- Wash and chop the tomatillos into quarters, halve the avocado and scoop out the inside, and slice the lime.
- Combine the avocado halves, tomatillos, sour cream (optional), ranch dressing mix, lime juice, chopped cilantro, garlic powder, and salt & pepper together into a blender or a bowl. If you want it spicy, add in a jalapeño or a pinch or two of red pepper flakes.
- You can blend it with an immersion blender or in a regular blender.
- Add in water and blend or whisk until it's the desired consistency.
- Transfer to a jar or serving container, and keep refrigerated until ready to use. Enjoy!
Katie Christiansen says
Thanks for the recipe Sara! This was so so delicious!! I'm excited to make it myself sometime.