creamy tomatillo “cafe rio” dressing

CREAMY TOMATILLO DRESSING! The infamouse Cafe Rio kind! FUN FACT: The very first, and very small, Cafe Rio restaurant was in St. George, Utah. Back in the day, there was more outdoor seating than indoor seating at this spot. We ate there for the first time in 1999 and were smitten from day one. While the location has changed (several times) in St. George and Cafe Rio has grown in popularity and to so many states, our love for the flavors has only grown.

The second Cafe Rio location EVER was in Provo, Utah. When it first arrived, we may have eaten there several times in a week, with zero shame about it! Each location has an open air kitchen so you can see all your food being made and be mesmerized while standing in line watching all those tortillas being made.Talk about wetting your appetite!

On one such occasion, that open air kitchen happened to be making their famous “creamy tomatillo” dressing. Literally right in front of me. One large pouch of this, another large pouch of that, toss in some of this. It was one of those moments when you look around to see if anyone is watching you “watch them” just in case you got caught! One of the managers very quickly scooted this worker out of sight, but the damage was done and you better believe I took a mental note of all it. Mischief managed! Of all the people to make that dressing in front of, how could they be so careless!!

Lucky for all of us, the incident happened and we now have the best (and better for you) COPY CAT variation out there.

Pairs well with our:

• Cafe Rio chicken salad
• chipotle lime flank steak
• grilled sweet potato wedges

creamy tomatillo “cafe rio” dressing

Recipe by MichelleCourse: southwesternCuisine: dressingDifficulty: easy

Servings

4

cups

Prep time

15

minutes

just like the famouse resturant BUT better!

Ingredients

• 4-6 tomatillos, papery skins removed, washed & roughly chopped

• ½ cup compatible mayonnaise (we like @primalkitchen – sub compatible vegan mayo for plant-based Whole30 )

• ½ cup compatible almond milk (we enjoy @threetreesfoods )

• 1 ripe avocado, peeled & roughly chopped

• handful of cilantro

• Juice of 2 limes

• 1 tsp fine sea salt

• ⅛ tsp dried dill

• ⅛ tsp garlic powder

• ⅛ tsp onion powder

• ⅛ tsp porcini powder*

Directions

• Place all the ingredients in a high powered blender (or use an immersion blender) & blend until completely smooth. Taste & adjust with more salt or lime juice if needed.
• *place dried porcini mushrooms in a spice grinder and pulvarize until you have a powder. Store in an airtight container.