Quick Cilantro Lime Sauce

This easy cilantro lime sauce is a zesty spin on ranch! You don’t even need a blender. Use it for grain bowls, tacos, and more.

Meet our new favorite sauce: Cilantro Lime Ranch! This cilantro lime sauce is perfect for dolloping grain bowls, drizzling over tacos, and more. It’s a zingy version of ranch dressing meshed with the Mexican flavors of lime and cilantro. The best part: no blender required. We’re making a fast dinner recipe, the last thing we want to do is get out our blender. (Yep, we’re lazy!) So here’s a fast and easy sauce without a blender: all you have to do is chop a few ingredients and stir.

Ingredients for cilantro lime ranch sauce

This cilantro lime sauce Alex and I created to go with our Easy Rice Bowls. We wanted a drizzle that would add lots of flavor to the bowl without being too time consuming. This idea is a mashup of our Shrimp Taco Sauce and this idea. Here’s what to know about this sauce:

• Greek yogurt + mayonnaise: This sauce uses our famous combo of Greek yogurt plus mayo to make a light and flavorful creamy sauce. The yogurt offsets the richness of mayo. You’ll see the same idea in many of our recipes, like our tuna salad, egg salad, and homemade ranch.
• Cilantro: Here you’ll chop it as finely as possible.
• Lime: The lime brings a bright zing to the sauce.
• Garlic powder and onion powder: These bring the ranch-like savoriness.
• Dried dill: This is the element that completes the ranch flavor! You can omit if you want more straightforward Mexican flavors: it’s still good.
• Salt and pepper

No blender needed! But you can blend too.

The best part of this cilantro lime sauce: you don’t need to dirty a blender! When I’m making a fast and easy dinner, it seems like a big obstacle to get a blender dirty. Of course, you can use a blender if you’d like a creamier texture and a light green color. Here are a few notes on the two processes:

• Chop the veggies as finely as possible. Because you won’t be using a blender, you’ll need to chop that cilantro as finely as possible so the sauce is relatively smooth. The sauce will be white with green flecks, as you see in the photos.
• Or, blend for a light green sauce. Want a light green sauce that’s fully creamy? You can blend it to get a more uniform texture. It’s easiest to use an immersion blender or food processor, due to the small quantity of ingredients.

4 more cilantro lime sauce variations

Looking for a different type of cilantro lime sauce? We’ve got lots of variations. Here are some of our other favorite cilantro lime sauces:

• Cilantro Lime Dressing *A favorite* A bright green, blended dressing that adds big flavor to any salad or burrito bowl!
• Easy Cilantro Lime Dressing Vegan variation! This dressing is more like a vinaigrette, based on lime and olive oil with lots of punch from the cilantro.
• Creamy Cilantro Sauce Vegan variation! This one is creamy and made with cashews. It’s sweeter and milder, with less of an herby flavor.
• Cilantro Lime Crema This more traditional Mexican sauce can be made with sour cream or Mexican crema (or try Lime Crema for a simplified version).

Ways to use cilantro lime sauce

You can use this cilantro lime ranch sauce in a multitude of recipes! It’s inspired by Mexican flavors fused with ranch dressing, which makes it work in lots of ways. Here are some ideas:

• Rice bowl: Try it in our Easy Rice Bowls.
• Tacos: Use it on Shrimp Tacos, Fish Tacos or Avocado Tacos.
• Fries: Try it with Crispy Sweet Potato Fries, Sweet Potato Wedges or Avocado Fries.
• Burritos: Drizzle on a Black Bean Burrito.
• Sweet potatoes: Top a baked sweet potato with black beans and this sauce.
• Roasted veggies: Take veggies over the top, like Epic Roasted Broccoli or Roasted Carrots.

This recipe is…

Vegetarian and gluten-free.

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More cilantro recipes

Cilantro might be a controversial ingredient, but we’re solidly on Team Cilantro! Here are a few more cilantro recipes to use up the bunch:

• Cilantro Lime Shrimp A healthy, easy dinner recipe that takes just 10 minutes! Serve with rice, in tacos, or as a Mexican-style salad topping.
• Best Salsa Recipe The very best salsa recipe! This fresh salsa features ripe and juicy tomatoes, cilantro, jalapeño, and lots of lime.
• Simple Guacamole Creamy, savory and perfectly balanced, you’ll hear a chorus of “Wow’s” every time you serve it.