Avocado Cilantro Sauce
This creamy avocado cilantro sauce is lemony, punchy, green magic. Drizzle it on tacos, bowls, salads, sandwiches — you name it! Everything it touches tastes just that much better.
Born from my love affair with the bold, bright flavours I fell for in California, this is my little tribute to Mexico’s gorgeous “green sauces” — not strictly authentic, but bursting with fresh herbs, zesty tang, and a good kick of heat at the end.
The star of this recipe is, without a doubt, avocado — all dreamy creaminess and that unmistakable buttery, nutty flavour. A spoonful of yoghurt builds on the creaminess and helps to keep the sauce light and tangy (no mayo required), while citrus, garlic, chilli, and cumin bring the piquancy full circle.
Incredibly, avocado cilantro sauce comes together in five minutes or less. Yes, five!
And if you want to talk about versatility … it tastes like it has a place on just about every meal you’ll eat this week. And maybe next week, too!
✨ Why You’ll Love This Avocado Cilantro Sauce
🌿 Ingredients You Need For Avocado Cilantro Sauce
- Avocado: I use Hass avocado for its buttery, creamy flesh, which is the heart and soul of this sauce.
- Cilantro (coriander leaves): Fresh, bright, lemony. The flavour of cilantro is on full show here. Thin stems are fine to blend; they pack tonnes of flavour, and discarding them is a real waste.
- Lemon juice: Adds clean acidity to balance the richness (lime also works).
- Yoghurt: You’ll need plain, unsweetened Greek or natural yoghurt (for that luscious, thick texture). It adds tang and brings a lighter mouthfeel than mayonnaise. Vegan substitutes are fine!
- Cumin powder: Warm, earthy base note that plays beautifully with citrus and chilli. Freshly ground is always best.
- Green chilli: I chose thin green chillies, which pack a punch with fieriness, but jalapeños are always a good all-rounder shout. Either way, this addition brings all the heat; use as little or as much as you like.
- Garlic: Just a clove for lift; if you prefer a mellower sauce, be sure to use softneck garlic or pre-roast the cloves.
- Salt: Brings everything into focus and uplifts the other flavours.
- Water (optional): A splash to loosen is optional, depending on how you’d like to serve the avocado cilantro sauce.
Adapting the Recipe for Dietary Requirements and Allergies
This avocado cilantro sauce is naturally 100% nut free, gluten free, and soy free. That’s in addition to being vegetarian, alcohol free, and egg free. It also happens to be oil free!
Since the recipe contains yoghurt, it’s not vegan as written. But, here’s how you can make the creamy sauce vegan (and dairy free) … it’s ridiculously straightforward. Just swap dairy-based yoghurt for an unsweetened plant yoghurt — I prefer neutral flavours like oat or soy.
I know how difficult it can be to find recipes that genuinely taste good and match your dietary needs, which is why I always do my best to make my recipes as accommodating as possible.
Fun Variations to Try
Go all-out with the Mexican flavours and swap lemon for lime. Lemons are a milder citrus, often bringing more fragrance and sweetness to the table, while limes are comparatively sharp and bitter. You can also swap thin green chillies for jalapeño, substituting the fruity, apple-like flavour for an earthier, grassy, tangy pungency.
Use more herbs! Cilantro is the star of this avocado crema sauce, it’s true! However, a touch of parsley (for pepperiness) or a sprig of mint (for cool freshness) can lift the flavour a little further.
Blend in a spoonful of tahini to introduce a nutty note and extra body to the sauce. This is fantastic in salad dressings, but be wary — it dulls the vibrant green colour slightly.
🧑🍳 Making Avocado Cilantro Sauce (Step-by-Step Photos)
How to make avocado cilantro sauce? It’s basically: throw in a blender, blitz, taste, done. Yes — this sauce comes together exceptionally fast. A minute or two is all it takes for a saucy revelation (not exaggerating)!
One: Add the avocado, yoghurt, roughly chopped cilantro, garlic, green chilli, cumin powder, and salt to a blender.
Two: Blend to a smooth, creamy sauce. Depending on your usage, add a splash of water (add a little at a time!) and mix in.
Remember, the complete recipe (with ingredient quantities and instructions) can be found at the bottom of this page. You can also print the recipe, save the recipe, adjust the servings, and much more from there!
Making Avocado Cilantro Sauce Without a Blender
You can whip up a fabulous sauce with pure arm power plus a mortar and pestle (as a bonus, it’s a workout!).
I recommend starting with the garlic and green chillies, then introducing the cilantro. Once that’s pounded down to a paste, add the avocado, then the yoghurt and seasonings. The result will take a little longer and may be chunkier — but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
⭐ My Secret Sauce for Success
Little details make a big difference, especially with simple recipes.
- Use a ripe avocado! Raw avocados are bland at best and bitter at worst, while overripe avocados can be sour. Here’s a fun trick: Bury your unripe avocados in uncooked rice to ripen them quickly. It works, I promise!
- Go easy on the garlic. Raw garlic can be pungent and strangely spicy, which can easily ruin your avocado cilantro sauce. Use softneck garlic (without a central stem) for a milder flavour, and always start with smaller cloves. Remember, you can add, but you can’t take away.
- Don’t skip the cilantro stems. They’re a powerhouse of flavour. It hurts me every time someone throws away the stems! Unless they’re hard and woody, they should be going in your sauce.
- If you’re adding water, gradually thin the sauce out. It may take a second or two longer, but adding water a teaspoon at a time can help you avoid a watery sauce.
- Thin gradually: Add water a teaspoon at a time to avoid a watery sauce.
❄️ Storing Avocado Cilantro Sauce
Here’s how to keep your sauce fresh and vibrant, days later.
Refrigerate for up to 2 days. To minimise browning (the one problem with using avocado!), press cling film or reusable beeswax wrap directly on the surface, and keep in an airtight container or jar.
Also, avocado cilantro sauce is freezeable! Although you may experience some textural separation (from the yoghurt), you can usually blend the sauce again after thawing to fix this issue. Alternatively, freeze the sauce in small, ice-cube-sized portions for easy meal prep.
🌮 Serving Suggestions
This sauce marries well with practically everything, which is why it’s a staple in my kitchen.
Here are a few of my favourite pairings to get you started:
- Indian snacks: This might be a Mexican-inspired recipe, but it’s also very Indian chutney adjacent. I’ve served avocado cilantro sauce alongside both gluten free onion bhaji and paneer samosa, and loved the combination each time! It makes for a positively lip-smacking spread on my onion bhaji burger, too.
- Tacos and quesadillas: Drizzle the avocado cilantro sauce over your favourite taco fillings for a creamier, guac-like experience, or use it to dip your quesadillas.
- Bowls and salads: Toss the creamy sauce into grains, roasted veg, shredded lettuce, or other fresh greens for an instant dressing that ticks the boxes.
- Sandwiches and wraps: Smother over tortilla or flatbread wraps to give an instant lift, or use instead of mayo for a fresh, lighter, herbier vibe on any sandwich.
- Make a snack board: With homemade tortilla chips, cucumber, crunchy carrots, and cherry tomatoes. This is a hit for party platters, potlucks, and any celebrations.
If you tried this avocado cilantro sauce — or any other recipe on my website — please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know your thoughts in the ✍️ comments at the bottom of the page. Thanks for being a part of my community!
🥑 Avocado Cilantro Sauce Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 avocado
- 40 g cilantro coriander
- ¼ lime or lemon juiced
- 1 small green chilli
- 5 tablespoons Greek yoghurt
- 1 clove garlic softneck
- ¼ teaspoon cumin powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Add 1 avocado, 40 g cilantro (plus stems!), ¼ lime or lemon (juiced), 1 small green chilli, 5 tablespoons Greek yoghurt, 1 clove garlic (peeled), ¼ teaspoon cumin powder, and ¼ teaspoon salt to a blender. Blend to a smooth, thick, and creamy sauce.
- If you're using the sauce as a dressing, not a spread or dip, you may want it thinner. In which case, add cold water 1 teaspoon at a time until you reach your desired consistency.
