Cilantro Lime Dressing
Make this cilantro lime dressing recipe for your next green salad! It's the perfect burst of freshness for your Mexican and Tex-Mex meals.
Updated by Kathryne Taylor on October 2, 2024
Make this cilantro lime dressing recipe the next time you prepare a Mexican meal. It’s bright, sunny and fresh! This dressing is boldly flavored with fresh lime, olive oil, cilantro, garlic, honey, cumin and Dijon mustard. You can make it creamy or spicy if you wish.
Drizzle this dressing over crisp greens with sliced avocado and toasted pepitas for a perfectly simple side salad. You’ll find a longer list of salad toppings to choose from below.
I improvised this dressing to make a green salad with leftovers from my Fajita Veggie & Halloumi Bowls, and I loved it so much that I wanted to share it with you. It’s almost as versatile as my favorite Lemon Vinaigrette and suits some flavors even better.
This dressing comes together quickly in the food processor and keeps in the refrigerator for up to one week. Sometimes having a vibrant sauce on hand makes all the difference!
How to Serve Cilantro Lime Dressing
Drizzle this cilantro lime dressing over greens to serve alongside Mexican and Tex-Mex meals. This fresh dressing comes together quickly and lightens heavy entrées. Serve it with Veggie Black Bean Enchiladas, Fajita Veggie & Halloumi Bowls or Vegetarian Stuffed Peppers.
This dressing is suitable for any green, from mild lettuces like Bibb lettuce and romaine to hearty greens like kale and arugula.
Here’s a list of salad ingredients that go well with this dressing:
- Avocado
- Bell pepper, raw or roasted
- Black beans
- Brown rice and wild rice
- Cabbage
- Carrot
- Cauliflower, grated or roasted
- Chickpeas, canned or crispy
- Cotija, feta and goat cheese
- Corn, especially grilled
- Cucumber
- Farro
- Jalapeños
- Lentils
- Pepitas and sunflower seeds
- Radish
- Red onion and green onion
- Tomatoes, raw or roasted
Watch How to Make Cilantro Lime Dressing
Flavor Variations
Make it creamy
Add tahini or Greek yogurt. I love the light nuttiness and intrigue that tahini brings. The recipe below includes suggested amounts for each option.
Make it spicy
Add a fresh jalapeño or red pepper flakes. Start small and blend in more to taste.
Skip the cilantro
For the cilantro-averse, yes, you can omit the cilantro! You’ll end up with a lovely lime dressing. It’s especially good with jalapeño for some extra flavor, which will be very similar to the Jalapeño-Lime Dressing in my cookbook, Love Real Food (page 53).
Salads Featuring Similar Dressings
These dressings are tailored to each recipe. I hope they offer additional inspiration.
- Anything-Goes Kale Salad with Green Tahini Dressing
- Grilled Summer Salad with Corn, Peppers and Chili-Lime Dressing
- Kale, Clementine and Feta Salad with Honey-Lime Dressing
- Mexican Green Salad with Jalapeño-Cilantro Dressing
Please let me know how your cilantro lime dressing turns out in the comments! I love hearing from you. You can check out more salad dressings here.
Cilantro Lime Dressing
Make this cilantro lime dressing recipe for your next green salad! It’s the perfect burst of freshness to accompany your Mexican and Tex-Mex meals. You can make the dressing creamy or spicy, if you wish! Recipe yields 1 ¼ cups.
Ingredients
- ½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
- ½ cup lime juice (from about 4 to 6 limes)
- 1 cup loosely packed cilantro (mostly leaves, small stems are ok, from about 1 small bunch)
- 1 tablespoon honey or maple syrup, to taste
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- ½ teaspoon ground cumin
- Scant ½ teaspoon fine salt, to taste
- 1 clove garlic, roughly chopped
- Optional, for spice: 1 small jalapeño, seeds and ribs removed, and roughly chopped, and/or a pinch of red pepper flakes
- Optional, for creamy dressing: 2 tablespoons tahini or ½ cup whole-milk Greek yogurt
Instructions
- In a food processor or small blender, combine all of the ingredients. Process until the mixture is completely smooth with tiny flecks of cilantro.
- Taste, and adjust as necessary—if the dressing is overwhelmingly tart, add more honey by the teaspoon. If it tastes a little bitter or needs extra oomph, add another pinch or two of salt. For more spice, add a pinch of red pepper flakes. Blend again.
- Serve immediately or store in a covered jar in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.
Notes
Make it vegan: Use maple syrup instead of honey. For a creamy dressing, choose tahini.
Nutrition
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice. See our full nutrition disclosure here.
Quick question. When you say for a creamier dressing use tahini do you mean to substitute the olive oil with tahini? Or half OO and half tahini?
Hi Debra! The recipe suggests adding 2 tablespoons tahini to the dressing. No need to adjust any other amounts.
Recipe looks wonderful. Hv cilantro and garlic in the garden
Hope you enjoy it, Ken!
I love this salad dressing. It has a nice sweet and sour balance. It’s easy and quick to make. I added tahini to mine.
Thanks so much, Mary! The tahini makes it extra special.
Hi – I was just wondering where I went wrong – my dressing came out quite bitter. Would love to hear if you have any advice. Love your website – thank you for the delicious recipes
Hi Riva! I’m sorry to hear that. Were your limes fresh? If you happened to get some lime pith in the dressing, that could explain it, or perhaps the cilantro tasted bitter that day. Another pinch of salt might help. You could try using half the amount of cilantro next time to see if that helps.
Sometimes if you over blend olive oil in a blender or food processor it can get bitter. Happened to me with a chimichurri and I looked it up.
I put this dressing on a tempeh buddah bowl and it was so good!
Great to hear, D! Thank you for your review.
I just made this and had it over grilled vegetables. It was delicious! Looking forward to trying it with other things this week. Thank you for the recipe. :)
Thanks so much, Michal! Served over grilled vegetables sounds so tasty.
Whoops I forgot to rate! Definitely 5 stars, a keeper.
The two flavors I love the most — cilantro and lime! Thank you for the recipe! The bonus for me is that I can keep it all to myself since I am the only cilantro lover in the house! I love your site and recipes, Kate!
Perfect for summer! Thanks for the detailed instructions
MADE THIS YESTERDAIY FOR THE FIRST TIME. USED OVER ARUGULA SALAD. FANTASTIC FLAVOR! MARINATED CHICKEN IN IT TODAY AND GRILLED! THIS ONE IS A KEEPER!
Hi Kate. I’ve been looking at this recipe and your jalapeño-cilantro recipe. They are similar but this one uses a whole cup of cilantro rather than a half cup. Everything else is the same. Which do you prefer? Thanks for all your great recipes. We would have starved a long time ago without you!
I think they are both great in their own right!
This is going on my salad and over my mesquite grilled chicken tonight. Do you think feta would be good with this in the salad?
Sure! I hope you love it. Thank you for your review, Michael.
Delicious! Had to cut back on the sugar, personal preference, but just delicious, and the tahini addition was genius. I’m inspired to try that in other dressings. On a personal note, I’m a big fan of your site, and I particularly enjoy your writing. Thank you, for sharing.
You’re welcome, Susan!