This Creamy Lime Cilantro ranch dressing is a great Cafe Rio Copycat for their Creamy Tomatillo Dressing. There are a lot of recipes out there for this type of thing and a lot of the good ones call for fresh tomatillos. However, after experimenting quite a bit, I decided, in this instance, I didn’t like the fresh tomatillos. For one thing it’s not something I have laying around my kitchen on a regular basis, so I have to plan in advance to buy them. Then I didn’t like the weird, watery texture they added to the dressing. So I started using a much easier substitution: green salsa. This dressing takes just minutes to buzz up in a blender and it’s perfect on salads, drizzled on nachos, as a dip for veggies or taquitos, or Latin-themed grain bowls.
Ingredients Needed
This is just a preview of ingredients and method, keep scrolling for full printable recipe.
- Ranch dressing mix – Just the dry packet of mix, ignore the directions on the package. I only use Hidden Valley brand, personally. That’s not to say another brand might be just great, but that’s the brand I always use! Grab the buttermilk recipe packet if you can, but the regular will work just fine as well.
- Mayonnaise – I personally use Best Foods/Hellmann’s. I suggest using a mayo that you like the flavor of otherwise. I’m not a fan of most light mayo so I don’t think the flavor is optimal, but as long as you like the flavor on its own, it will work just fine here.
- Buttermilk
- Fresh lime juice – I suggest using juice from fresh limes here, as opposed to pre-bottled lime juice, which tends to be bitter. If you don’t have access to fresh limes, I suggest using one of my pantry staples- True Lime. It’s granulated fresh lime and absolutely wonderful. You’ll notice it in my photo below.
- Fresh garlic
- Green salsa
- Cilantro
- Hot sauce
How to Make Creamy Lime-Cilantro Ranch
- This isn’t difficult, you literally just blitz everything up in a blender! It’s so simple, and so fast. Feel free to adjust liquid for consistency and remember that dressing usually thickens a bit after standing. This copycat Cafe Rio Tomatillo Dressing will be your favorite condiment!
Storing and Other Tips
- Store finished dressing in an airtight container in the refrigerator and enjoy within 5-7 days for best results.
- This dressing is obviously awesome on salads, but also as a dip for things like chicken fingers, veggies and steak fries. If you’re making our Baked Creamy Chicken Taquitos, this is pretty much required to go along with them.
Frequently Asked Questions
Use salsa verde or tomatillo-based green salsa. In a pinch I’ve even used green enchilada sauce!
Yep. In fact, the flavors develop even more after a few hours in the fridge, making it an ideal dressing to prep a day in advance.
Only if you want it to be! You determine the level of spice with the spice rating on your salsa and any additional hot sauce you might add.
Dairy based recipes like this usually do not freeze well and separate upon thawing. This one is best enjoyed fresh!
Lime-Cilantro Ranch Dressing
Ingredients
- 1- ounce package ranch dressing mix ignore directions on package
- 1 cup mayonnaise
- ½ cup buttermilk plus more if necessary to thin out the dressing
- 1-2 limes enough for 2 tablespoons of fresh lime juice
- 2 cloves garlic roughly chopped
- ¼ cup green salsa
- ½ cup chopped cilantro
- Hot sauce to taste
Instructions
- Place buttermilk, mayonnaise, 2 tablespoons of lime juice, and ranch mix in a blender. Add the garlic and green salsa and blend until smooth. Add the cilantro and pulse until the cilantro is well combined. Add hot sauce to taste. Chill for several hours before serving (if possible).
Notes
- Store finished dressing in an airtight container in the refrigerator and enjoy within 5-7 days for best results.
- This dressing is obviously awesome on salads, but also as a dip for things like chicken fingers, veggies and steak fries. If you’re making our Baked Creamy Chicken Taquitos, this is pretty much required to go along with them.
Questions & Reviews
Made this to go with your taquitos last night and it was a wonderful addition. Thanks for sharing!
Hi Sara!
I have recently moved from Meridian to Wyoming (I worked at DB and we visited a few times) I have a silly question for you. Is there a difference between the Green Salsa and Salsa Verde. Used to be able to buy the Green Salsa at Walmart and Albertsons … but now it isn’t on the shelves and all they have is the Verde. I am almost out of the Green Salsa in my food storage and I make this all the time….help!!! Thanks for the help 🙂
Don’t know if it’ll help, but I used Salsa Verde in mine, and it turned out wonderful. I just checked to make sure tomatillos was very first in the ingredients before I bought. HTH
This dressing is amazing! I’m doing roughly 1700 calories a day, so I had to substitute the mayo with fat-free sour cream, and the milk with skim milk. IT CAME OUT AMAZING. I am not even kidding. Kroger’s store-brand of fat-free sour cream is a little runnier than normal sour cream, so the texture was perfect. The only other thing I tweaked was a little extra cilantro, because honestly – who doesn’t love cilantro?
I’m not exaggerating when I say this is the best dressing/dip I’ve ever had the pleasure of enjoying. 🙂 Swapping out the mayo and whole milk made it much, much, much healthier, for those of us on more restricted diets. 🙂
We sub the mayo with the Greek yogurt. I dont know if that fits in your restrictions, but its just as creamy 🙂
I made with last night for my husband’s birthday party. It was a huge hit! I’m so excited I came across your website. We can’t wait to try other recipes.
My husband wanted a steak salad today – we normally pick one up from our local gastro-pub. I figured we could try it ourselves but I couldn’t find the right dressing, it’s a chili something dressing on romaine with tomato, thin-sliced green apples, brownsugar coated toasted walnuts with red onions. I found this dressing instead and tweaked the salad (took out the apples and walnuts and added cucumbers). OMG! This dressing is soooooo good! I added a little pepper to mask the ranch (it was strong to me) but man this was soooo good! Even my kids ate it on their salad and I was (hoping/thinking) they’d eat ranch. They’re 9, 14 and 16 and they’re requesting it on the chicken wrap tomorrow, too 😉 THANK YOU! Bookmarked your site for this foodie 🙂
I haven’t made this yet but I’m sure I’ll love it because it has some of my favorite things! Ranch? Check. Cilantro? Check. GREEN SALSA? Check check! It looks divine 😀
Holey moley, this dressing is so good! Im serving it tomorrow to feed my family and the missionaries in a green salad, along with the creamy baked chicken tostitos! Can’t wait:)
Made this dressing tonight for our taco salads and it was a huge hit! I did add a chunk of fresh jalapeno for some extra kick and used 1/2 cup sour cream and 1/2 cup mayo instead of a whole cup of mayo. I can’t wait to dip my lunch veggies in it tomorrow! Thanks!
We’ve been living off of this dressing this summer. Absolutely fabulous on taco salad!
this dressing/sauce is amazing! i have also made it using the spicy ranch packets – giving some extra spice – and actually prefer it 🙂 thank you for all the wonderful recipes 🙂 love, love the cookbook as well!