Cafe Rio Cilantro Lime Dressing Copycat

Craving Cafe Rio dressing? Skip the drive-thru! This copycat recipe whips up in minutes. Just toss everything in a blender, chill, and enjoy.

What You’ll Love About This Cilantro Lime Dressing:

• Simple and Quick: Throwing the fresh ingredients in a blender only takes a few minutes to hit the button. No complicated cooking is required to make this creamy dressing. 
• Restaurant-Quality at Home: Recreate the iconic Cafe Rio flavor with a handful of ingredients in your kitchen and save money. This is a great way to get your favorite tangy dressing without much work. 
• Versatile: This dressing is a delicious topping for salads, tacos, burritos, grilled chicken, burrito bowls, and more. It adds a creamy-tangy punch to any dish.

Cilantro Lime Salad Dressing Ingredients:

Here’s everything you’ll need to make this creamy copycat recipe.

• Lime – You’ll be using just the lime’s juice. Add ½ – 1 teaspoon of lime zest if you want extra zest flavor. 
• Cilantro – Only fresh will do because it’s a vital dressing component. 
• Garlic – This dressing relies on the pungent punch of flavor from the garlic. Please don’t use garlic powder. 
• Tomatillos – Tomatillos’ natural tartness adds bright acidity to the dressing, balancing richness and creating a more refreshing flavor. They also contribute to the dressing’s pale green color. 
• Mayonnaise – You can use Greek yogurt or low-fat mayo in its place. 
• Buttermilk – Buttermilk’s subtle yet pleasant tanginess complements the tomatillos’ natural acidity, creating a bright and lively flavor profile. 
• Tabasco – This adds a subtle spiciness to the dressing. You can leave it out if you’d like. 
• Packet of Hidden Valley Buttermilk Dressing Mix – This mix is pivotal in achieving that classic Cafe Rio flavor. 

How To Make Cafe Rio Dressing:

***This is just a teaser! To see the complete ingredient list and step-by-step instructions, scroll to the recipe card at the bottom of the page.

1. Add all the ingredients in a blender. 
2. Blend it smoothly, adjusting consistency with buttermilk or mayo as needed.
3. Refrigerate dressing for at least 1 hour.
4. Drizzle over Cafe Rio salad, tacos, or grilled chicken. 

Top Tips & Tricks:

• Adjust fresh cilantro/lime juice to taste.
• Substitute sour cream for buttermilk (if needed).
• Use drained diced tomatillos (canned) if fresh is unavailable.

Make It A Meal

This creamy cilantro lime salad dressing is an excellent addition to our other Cafe Rio recipes for black beans, guacamole, cilantro lime dressing, and pulled pork to serve with this dressing recipe. 

Serving & Storage:

Serve: Serve over salads, tacos, and burritos, or use it to dip quesadillas into.

Store: Store leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

Freeze: This recipe does not freeze and thaw well, so we don’t recommend freezing it.

Recipe FAQs:

How many calories are in Cafe Rio cilantro lime dressing?

This dressing has 207 calories. For the complete nutrition information, refer to the information at the bottom of the recipe card. 

What is the ranch at Cafe Rio called?

The famous house dressing is their Cilantro-Lime dressing. Our copycat recipe is the real deal! This is our best copycat recipe for an easy dressing that can be served in many ways.  

What does a good tomatillo look like?

Ripe tomatillos are vibrant green (think Granny Smith) and firm to the touch; their husks are sometimes split. 

More From The Cozy Fork:

5 from 2 votes

Cafe Rio Dressing

By The Cozy Fork

Craving Cafe Rio’s signature dressing? Skip the drive-thru! This copycat recipe whips up in minutes. Just toss everything in a blender, chill, and enjoy.

Prep: 10 minutes mins

Chill Time: 1 hour hr

Total: 1 hour hr 10 minutes mins

Servings: 8 people

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Equipment

• Cutting board
• Chef’s knife
• Blender
• measuring cups and spoons
• Liquid measuring cup

Ingredients 

1x2x3x

• ▢ 1 lime, juiced
• ▢ ½ cup cilantro, chopped
• ▢ 2 cloves garlic, minced
• ▢ 2 medium tomatillos, peeled and chopped
• ▢ 1 cup mayonnaise
• ▢ ½ cup buttermilk
• ▢ 1 teaspoon Tabasco
• ▢ ½ packet of Hidden Valley buttermilk dressing mix
• ▢ Salt and pepper to taste

US Customary – Metric

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Instructions 

MAKE THE DRESSING:

• Add the lime juice, cilantro, garlic, tomatillos, mayo, buttermilk, tabasco, Hidden Valley dressing mix and salt and pepper into the blender.
• Blend until all combined.

CHILL, SERVE, AND STORE:

• Chill the dressing in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.
• Serve on top of Cafe rio salad.

Notes

Store leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

Nutrition

Serving: 0.25cup, Calories: 207kcal, Carbohydrates: 3g, Protein: 1g, Fat: 22g, Saturated Fat: 4g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 13g, Monounsaturated Fat: 5g, Trans Fat: 0.1g, Cholesterol: 13mg, Sodium: 212mg, Potassium: 66mg, Fiber: 0.4g, Sugar: 1g, Vitamin A: 125IU, Vitamin C: 4mg, Calcium: 25mg, Iron: 0.2mg

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

Additional Info

Course: Side Dish

Cuisine: American

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