Easy Homemade Cilantro Lime Dressing

You guys. Have you ever been stuck in a rut with lunches? Maybe you’re trying to work in more salads, but you end up with a sad desk (or couch these days) salad lunch that just does not satisfy? Let’s make a promise to each other. NO MORE SAD SALAD LUNCHES! Life is too short for that. You, your body, and your taste buds deserve better.

Enter:

Easy Homemade Cilantro Lime Dressing

We are talking 6 ingredients, maybe 10 minutes of your life, resulting in days on days of delicious, irresistible salads. Or bowls. Or tacos. Or dip for veggies. The versatility!! This sounds like a strong sell, but it’s worth the hype. Scroll down for notes and step-by-step pictures so can work this Cilantro Lime Dressing into your salad routine!

Some Notes on Cilantro Lime Dressing Ingredients

• Fresh cilantro. I’ve made this both taking the time to strip the leaves from the stems, as well as just keeping the stems. I didn’t sense a huge difference. That being said, if you want to ensure a smooth consistency, you could take a bit more time to pull the leaves off of the stems. Doesn’t have to be perfect, just get the biggest stems out of there.
• Plain Greek Yogurt. Fat content is your call — I’m partial to full-fat, but I’ve also made this with 2% Greek yogurt and it turned out just as well. Do not however, choose a regular (non-Greek yogurt) or a flavored yogurt. That will mess with both flavor and texture of the dressing. 
• Mayonnaise. This is flexible. If you are anti-mayo, you can make this dressing with entirely yogurt and it is also delicious. If you want more mayo, you can reduce the yogurt a bit and increase the mayo portion.

How to Make this Easy Homemade Cilantro Lime Dressing

So simple. 

Get your ingredients ready. 

Get that food processor out and put her to work!

Add in everything except the olive oil.

Blend for 45-ish seconds until well-combined. When you take the cover off, you might see chunks of cilantro on the sides of the food processor. Now take a small spatula or spoon and scrape down the sides. 

Put the top back on after your scrape the sides. Blend again and stream in olive oil. After about 30 more seconds or so, it should look like the picture below. Look at that beautiful green color!!

Get pumped for your homemade Cilantro Lime Dressing!!!

Some Ways to Enjoy this Dressing

• As a salad dressing, duh. One of my favorite combinations is lots of greens + a cooked grain for those nutrient-dense carbs + beans for protein + whatever combination of veggies you have on hand (e.g., cucumber, mushroom, bell pepper, jalapeno, carrots, jicama, onion, tomato) + cheese diced up + some kind of seed like sunflower seeds. The nuts and cheese provide a dose of fats to help round out this meal and keep you full and satisfied. This combination gives you alllll the flavors and texture. No sad desk salads here!!
• As a sauce to go with tacos. Lay down a layer on tortillas and then load up the goods. 
• If you’re bored of hummus, try dipping veggies in this dressing. You will not be disappointed!
• As a dressing for a bowl. Perhaps a cooked grain + protein + veggies + this bomb dressing. Check out our Instagram post for some bowl inspo with this dressing.
• If you plan on sharing with another lucky human and you want to enjoy this dressing all week long, plan to double the recipe. 

Basically, cannot recommend enough. There is something about a homemade sauce/dressing that you really love that helps you not only eat more vegetables, but actually ENJOY them and feel excited to eat them. If you’re like whaaaat come on, how could one be excited to eat vegetables? Trust us, it’s possible. You just have to find what works for you. Take the fact that you stumbled across this post today as your sign to try out something new! Skip that bottled salad dressing knowing you are capable of whipping up something deeeeelicious in the kitchen. 

If you make it, be sure to let us know how you like it!!