This easy 5-minute cilantro yogurt sauce is perfect on salads, grilled veggies, tacos, and more! Make a batch ahead of time and keep it in the fridge to use as needed during the week.
This easy, creamy cilantro yogurt sauce is my meal prep secret weapon. It's similar to a creamy pesto sauce, packs a TON of flavor, and gives a gorgeous pop of color to anything you serve it with.
Whip up a batch over the weekend and use it all week long on tacos, salads, grain bowls, salmon, veggies, you name it!
Riffs & Substitutions
This Greek yogurt sauce is VERY forgiving, so feel free to play around with the ratios and ingredients! Some of our favorite twists:
- Add an avocado for an even thicker, creamier sauce.
- Swap a handful of the cilantro for fresh spinach, kale, or arugula.
- Add a handful of walnuts or pistachios for some extra depth and a bit of texture.
- Use lime juice instead of lemon if you like.
- Add a few slices of jalapeño or roasted poblano pepper for a spicy upgrade.
- Use sour cream or plain yogurt in place of the Greek yogurt if you like!
How to use this creamy cilantro yogurt sauce
- Use it as the dressing for your favorite salads and grain bowls. You can thin this sauce out with a little bit of lemon juice and olive oil if you like a thinner salad dressing!
- Add a dollop to your protein of choice. This yogurt dressing is great alongside grilled salmon or other fish, kebabs, falafel, chicken, or steak!
- Use it as a dipping sauce for sliced veggies, crackers, and crudités.
- Drizzle it over your favorite tacos. (Need some inspo? We love these veggie breakfast tacos or this taco collection from Isabel Eats!)
- Use it as the dressing for your favorite pasta salad.
Recipe Ideas
Drizzle this cilantro yogurt dressing over these dishes, or serve on the side for dipping!
- Lemon Garlic Roasted Broccoli
- Easy Homemade Crab Cakes
- Grilled Salmon with Corn Salsa
- Chorizo Baked Eggs
- Lemon Garlic Butter Steelhead
- Baja Fish Tacos from Isabel Eats
A few quick FAQs
Store this cilantro yogurt sauce in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days.
This dressing freezes pretty well, though we recommend making it fresh if you can! Keep it in an airtight container in the freezer for 3-4 months, and defrost overnight in the fridge when you're ready for it. The texture can get a little bit grainy after a stint in the freezer, so you may want to blend it again after defrosting to bring it back to a smooth consistency.
Yes! Use your favorite non-dairy Greek yogurt here. We also have a dairy-free cilantro pesto that's very similar to this recipe!
Yes! Depending on your blender, you may need to add a bit of extra liquid (like a splash of water or olive oil) to help it blend smoothly.
📖 Recipe
Cilantro Yogurt Sauce
- Prep Time: 4 min
- Cook Time: 1 min
- Total Time: 5 minutes
- Yield: Makes about 1.5 cups 1x
- Category: Sauce
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Vegetarian
Description
This easy, creamy cilantro yogurt sauce is perfect on tacos, salads, and more!
Ingredients
- 3 heaping cups fresh cilantro (you can eyeball this - just use three generous handfuls!)
- 1 cup plain Greek yogurt
- 1 clove garlic, peeled
- 1 Tablespoon lemon juice
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Place all ingredients in the bowl of a food processor. Blend until sauce is relatively smooth, about 30 seconds. Scrape down the sides of the food processor bowl and pulse again to form a smooth sauce.
- Taste and add seasonings (salt, pepper, lemon juice) as necessary. Serve immediately or store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days.
Notes
Additions and Substitutions. This recipe is very forgiving - mix it up however you'd like! Add an avocado for extra creaminess. Use lime juice instead of lemon if you like. Add a few slices of jalapeño or roasted poblano pepper for a bit of spice. Swap a handful of the cilantro for spinach or kale. Add a handful of walnuts or pistachios for a bit of depth and texture.
Serving suggestions. Use this dressing on salads, grain bowls, tacos, grilled veggies and more! It's great on grilled fish (we love it with salmon), chicken, or steak, and it's also excellent with homemade crab cakes.
Storing and freezing. Store sauce in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days, or in the freezer for 3-4 months. Defrost frozen sauce overnight in the fridge before using. The texture can get a little bit grainy after freezing: we recommend blending sauce in a blender or food processor once defrosted to smooth it out again.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 2 Tablespoons
- Calories: 25
- Sugar: 1 g
- Sodium: 206.9 mg
- Fat: 1.2 g
- Carbohydrates: 1.3 g
- Protein: 2.2 g
- Cholesterol: 3.1 mg
Keywords: greek yogurt, sauce, dressing
Sarah B.
Do you de-stem the cilantro before putting it in the food processor or can you throw the entire thing in?
Sarah B.
Nevermind! Just saw your comment about being able to use the stems! Thanks 🙂
Lee G
Delicious recipe. It took about 15 minutes to make in my nutribullet. I served it with seabass and salmon and it tasted delicious. The only change I made is to use sour cream instead of greek yogurt.
★★★★★
d4v1d
Used this as the 'mayo' for chicken salad. perfect as is, and for my personal side of the table, a drop of tobasco was crowning glory.
★★★★★
Dana
I haven't made the pesto or yogurt sauce yet. I love cilantro and am excited to try these. Thank you.
Melinda
my sister told her son she would make the cupcakes for his wedding. AAAAhhh! He says there might be 150 people. I reluctantly told her I'd help. Is this possible for amateurs to pull off? Of course they are dreaming of several flavors and a professional look. I watched your videos on freezing individually wrapped cupcakes, is that crazy for this many cupcakes? And shouldn't we make minis?