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.
Ingredient Notes
- Ranch Seasoning: 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.
- 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.
- Mayonnaise: I personally use Best Foods/Hellmans. 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.
- Green Salsa: Look for one that has tomatillos listed in the top ingredients.
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!
It’s obviously awesome on salads, and 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.
Related Recipes
If you love Cafe Rio/Costa Vida-type salads, you’ve got all of the ingredients to make an Our Best Bites version right here. Start with a fresh homemade tortilla, layer on some lime-cilantro rice (pineapple optional) and black beans, then some crispy romaine lettuce. Top with either taco chicken or lime-chili steak, some fresh Pico de Gallo and guacamole and quickly fried tortilla strips for the big finish. Smother it in this salad dressing or this vinaigrette and you’ve got a salad ready to send you to food heaven!
Did You Make This?
I’d love to hear from you! Snap a picture on tag me on Instagram, then come back and give this recipe a rating!
Lime-Cilantro Ranch Dressing
Ingredients
- 1- ounce package ranch dressing mix (ignore directions on package
- 1 cup mayonnaise
- 1/2 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
- 1/4 cup green salsa
- 1/2 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.)
Questions & Reviews
This is the best dressing I have ever tried. I used it on everything from salad to potatoes to meat. Yummy. Thanks
This was very good and I will definitely make it again but I will only use 1 clove of garlic next time. Although it was very tasty, the garlic after taste was SO over powering it was hard to get rid of it. So all in all I highly recommend it but omit from too much garlic.
This one gets the blue ribbon from me! Great recipe, thanks
Forgot to add that I bought a jar of Mayo with lime by McCormick a few weeks ago and when I got it home I didn’t even know why I purchased it, it just sounded good when I saw it…. Well you may have guessed by now, I used it in this recipe! Delicious!
This was so yummy. Took it to a party and it was a hit. BTW… I used fat free mayo and it was still yummy! I may even try using Greek nonfat plain yogurt next time and see if it’s still good! Thanks!
Try this to make it healthier! i made these substitutions and no one was the wiser 🙂
Silken Soft Tofu instead of milk and only 1/8 a cup of mayo. 10X’s healthier and equally as tasty!!!
Thanks for the recommendation on the green salsa – I went looking for green salsa both for this and your creamy taquitos and couldn’t figure out what to get – I am also a wuss and they didn’t have any labeled as mild and I didn’t want to pay for something that I wouldn’t be able to eat. So excited to try this dip now (lol – I couldn’t wait for the taquitos and just ended up making it with regular salsa – still good – and they froze really well – I made a triple batch and ate the rest for lunches for the next month! Plus my kids really loved them too)
Thanks again for this great site and great recipes!
I have been missing Cafe Rio since moving to the east ( ok Utah a bit ;), and have made this dressing before..the harder way with the tomatillo’s and all that. The green sauce and the packet of ranch is not only easier, it tastes the same if not better!! Love it! Thanks!
My husband classified this with my chicken spaghetti and nothing has ever compared to that! This is so good and I have made 2 batches in 4 days! It is so delish on everything! We rubbed it on corn on the cob and dipped our green beans in it. I’m even guilty of putting it on my hotdog! It is so addictive!
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Can’t wait to try the recipe!
WOW!!! I have eaten at Cafe Rio several times and I can’t ever get enough of their dressing. This recipe is the closest recipe to the Cilantro lime ranch at Cafe Rio. Thank you!!!
Not sure if I missed this somewhere…but is there any idea how long it will keep? I’m only one person!! But it’s not worth wasting the cilantro to make a smaller batch!
A week or two? There’s no exact time- you’ll just have to eyeball it 🙂
I just wanted to say I love your blog! I’m planning to make the lime chile steak salad and the apple pecan gorgonzola salad this weekend! Your tips and recommendations/comments are very helpful as well!
Thanks so much!
Kelly Shinton, Registered Dietitian
I made this last night to go on my homemade Cafe Rio-style taco salads and it was fabulous! I have to say I was a bit skeptical that it would taste the same as the real thing, but it was every bit as good, if not better. I’m definitely keeping this recipe around. Thanks!
I had some leftover homemade buttermilk ranch dressing that I made a couple of days ago. I simply added the same amounts of cilantro, garlic, lime juice and green salsa and blended it. My family stuffed themselves on the Fish Tacos that I served it over tonight. LOVE this. Thanks so much!
I didn’t have enough mayo so I added cream cheese with it an yummy!!I was out of fresh cilantro but I had some y’all may see in tubes that is like a paste you squeeze out. Not as flavorfull as the fresh but way better than dry. LOVE this dressing! I had it with southwestern chicken wings.
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!
Does this recipe freeze well; and if so for how long?
Shawna, I don’t think ranch dressing freezes very well, but who knows- I’ve never tried it!