This cilantro lime sauce is easy to prepare and pairs well with so many different dishes! Drizzle creamy cilantro sauce over your favorite adobada tacos or fish burritos, use it as a salad dressing, and mix it into oil and vinegar coleslaw. You can also enjoy cilantro lime crema with chips!
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This creamy cilantro lime sauce is similar to creamy avocado sauce, with a few slight variations. I put this creamy cilantro sauce on pretty much everything. Whenever I'm enjoying carne asada fries, sheet pan tacos, birria tostadas, or, honestly, any kind of Mexican food, I smother it with an absurd amount of this sauce.
The beautiful thing about this cilantro cream sauce is that it can be enjoyed in so many different ways. Mexican food is the most obvious pairing, but the possibilities don't end there.
You'd be amazed at how well it works as a salad dressing (especially with cobb salad) or as a dip for fresh vegetables or chips.
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🔖 Ingredients & Substitutions
- Green onions: You could also use chives or yellow onions.
- Garlic: Garlic powder will work as well.
- Serrano: This ingredient is optional; leave it out or substitute it with fresh jalapeno.
- Sour cream: Greek yogurt or Mexican crema make great substitutes.
*Find the full list of ingredients for this cilantro lime sauce recipe in the recipe card at the bottom of the post.
🌿 How To Make Cilantro Lime Sauce
Step 1: Rinse your veggies and remove unwanted stems, pits, or peels.
Step 2: Add cilantro, green onions, and serranos into the food processor or blender. Squeeze the juice out of your limes and add it to a food processor along with garlic, avocados, sour cream, and salt. Blend until smooth.
Pro tip: I like to add the cilantro stems and all to my cilantro cream sauce, but you can trim off the stems if that's your preference.
Step 3: Give the cilantro cream sauce a taste and add more salt if necessary. Store in a mason jar and enjoy!
🍯 Serving Suggestions
This creamy cilantro sauce recipe is truly the holy grail of sauces. It goes with everything! I recommend trying this sauce paired with chilaquiles verdes and the following:
- Chicken
- Carne Asada (see carne asada marinade recipe)
- Burrito bowls
- Mexican rice bowls
- Salads
- Blackened fish tacos
- Spinach and eggs
🤷🏻♀️ Recipe FAQs
Cilantro lime sauce (sometimes known as creamy cilantro sauce or cilantro cream sauce) is a tangy, citrusy sauce made with cilantro, lime juice, sour cream, garlic, avocado, and salt. Sometimes peppers such as jalapeno or serrano are added for heat.
Cilantro cream sauce will safely last 1 week in the fridge, and possibly up to 2 weeks when kept in an airtight container.
👩🏻🍳 Pro Tips
- Sometimes I like to finish off my creamy cilantro lime sauce with a little splash of pickled jalapeno juice to give it an extra little kick.
- If you want to thin the sauce, you can mix in a little water.
- This sauce should keep in the fridge for about one week, but I'm confident that you'll have no problem using it all up by then.
🍅 More Sauce Recipes
If you enjoyed this cilantro cream sauce recipe, you may also like these other sauce recipes!
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📖 Recipe
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Ingredients
Equipment
Method
- Rinse your veggies and remove unwanted stems, pits, or peels.
- Add cilantro, green onions, and serranos into the food processor or blender. Squeeze the juice out of your limes and add to food processor along with garlic, avocados, sour cream, and salt. Blend until smooth.
- Give the cilantro cream sauce a taste and add more salt if necessary. Store in a mason jar and enjoy!
Nutrition
Notes
- I like to add my cilantro stems and all, but you can trim off the stems if that's your preference.
- Sometimes I like to finish off my creamy cilantro lime sauce with a little splash of pickled jalapeno juice to give it an extra little kick.
- If you want to thin the sauce you can mix in a little water.
- This sauce should keep in the fridge for about one week, but I'm confident that you'll have no problem using it all up by then.
PJ says
I made this tonight for a chicken tostada salad. It was FABULOUS! The flavors of all the ingredients came through perfectly and the heat for me was wonderful. I will definitely be making more of this after I finish this batch. Thank you!
Nena Sterner says
I'm so glad you liked it! There's a reason I always keep a jar of this in the fridge haha