Cilantro Sauce
A great way to use up leftover cilantro, this versatile sauce works in rice bowls, wraps, and sandwiches.
Servings: 2 cups
Equipment
- Food Processor
Ingredients
- 3 cloves garlic, chopped or 1 ½ tsp jarred minced garlic
- 2 cups packed fresh cilantro leaves (about one large bunch)
- 3 medium jalapeno peppers, seeds removed and saved See Notes, below.
- 3/4 tsp ground cumin
- 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes. or to taste
- 1/2 to 3/4 tsp salt
- ⅛ to ¼ tsp ground cardamom, or more, to taste
- 1/8 tsp ground coriander, or more, to taste
- juice of half a lime, or more, to taste
- 1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt, full fat See Notes, below.
- 1 tbsp + 1 tsp olive oil, or more to adjust consistency
Instructions
- If using whole garlic cloves, place them in a food processor and pulse until they are in very small pieces. If using jarred garlic, add it in the next step with the other ingredients.
- Add all the remaining ingredients except the olive oil. Process until smooth.
- While the food processor is running, drizzle in the olive oil. Process a little longer until well blended.
- Taste and adjust seasoning. Add more lime a little bit at a time, or salt or other spices a pinch at a time. To add more heat, you can use reserved jalapeno seeds or more red pepper flakes.
- Let sauce chill in refrigerator for at least an hour before serving so the flavours can mingle.
Notes
- The seeds contain a lot of the heat in jalapenos. To ensure you don’t overwhelm this sauce with spice, remove the seeds. You can save them and add them at the end if you feel the sauce needs more heat.
- The original recipe used sour cream, which I find too rich. Since yogurt is naturally lower in fat than sour cream, I recommend a higher fat yogurt so you don’t lose all the flavour from the sour cream. I use Oikos 11% fat, but the choice is yours.