Sometimes you have to try and kick yourself when something so easy is so flippin’ good. Last week during the Green Bay Packers game, we had nacho night. We thought we would celebrate game day, as we hoped for a victory, which was not the case, with a nice plate of ‘build your own nachos’. I know how my family rolls when it comes to nachos. The kids are typically a bit of meat and cheese, while my daughter might be just cheese and chips. My wife will load hers with cheese, chips, a bit of meat, avocado, maybe some lettuce and tomato. Me on the other hand? Well, I like to jazz mine up, and load them up with things like beans, onions, cilantro, and some chilies. As I normally just use chopped up sprigs of cilantro, I decided to go another route, and make a cilantro sauce to heavily drizzle throughout the nachos, and whoa, was this stuff ever amazing!
Super simple ingredients yields a sauce so awesome that you will be blown away.
Let’s get started.
Ingredients:
- 1 bunch of fresh cilantro, cleaned
- 2-3 cloves of garlic (add more or less for garlic intensity)
- 1/2 tsp salt, to taste
- 1 pinch of cayenne pepper
- 3/4 cup of olive oil
- 1/4 cup of water
Add everything to a food process and blend until you have a smooth sauce. Pour into a glass container, and place in the refrigerator until you are ready to use. When you are ready to use, give a gentle shake, and spoon onto whatever you desire.
I’ve been using this sauce on everything from eggs at breakfast, to salads, and even drizzling on sandwiches.
This cilantro sauce is bright, and intense in flavor. You get that awesome punch of garlic cilantro flavor in every bite. I hope you enjoy!
- 1 bunch of fresh cilantro, cleaned
- 2-3 cloves of garlic (add more or less for garlic intensity)
- ½ tsp salt, to taste
- 1 pinch of cayenne pepper
- ¾ cup of olive oil
- ¼ cup of water
- Add everything to a food process and blend until you have a smooth sauce. Pour into a glass container, and place in the refrigerator until you are ready to use. When you are ready to use, give a gentle shake, and spoon onto whatever you desire.
- I've been using this sauce on everything from eggs at breakfast, to salads, and even drizzling on sandwiches.
- This cilantro sauce is bright, and intense in flavor. You get that awesome punch of garlic cilantro flavor in every bite. I hope you enjoy!
I mixed some of this up this morning – VERY good! I might add a bit of greek yogurt to make it a creamy sauce for some things.
LOVE the new look of your blog – clean, easy to find things – I always like “related” posts on food blogs to see things I might have missed.
Thanks Liz. That addition of yogurt sounds like a great ideas as well. Glad you like the new look.
This looks fab! I cant wait to try this on my family.
Oh… and sorry…we’re 49er faithfuls 🙂
Hi Amanda – No worries. My brother-n-law’s son plays for the 49ers, so we are cheering them on as well! His name is Derek Carrier (http://www.49ers.com/team/roster/Derek-Carrier/5ff2535e-d29c-4a31-b059-cef7e5e3839c)
Yum! just whipped some up – i used an immersion blender and made it directly in my glass jar. So good, and couldn’t be easier 🙂
I just made this and I had a fresh jalapeno so I seeded and chopped it and added to the mini processor. I used olive oil and tiny bit of white vinegar. It is really good.
This is very very good. I only felt the amount of olive oil was excessive and maybe in error? Thank you!
Yesterday I had a bunch of Cilantro that I didn’t want going to waste so I made it into a mock Pesto sauce just for me. And lo and behold, today I find YOUR recipe which is a lot like mine! Lol.
Here’s what I did…and, no, I didn’t measure anything. I just put everything into a blender and seasoned ‘to taste’:
A large bunch of Cilantro from the supermarket, rinsed and gently shaken
Enough Olive Oil to make the cilantro move around in the blender
Several heaping tablespoons of Parmesan Cheese (for flavor and to replace any need for salt)
Several hefty shakes of Onion Powder
Several hefty shakes of Garlic Powder
Cut off any brown stems/leaves and then put ALL of the remaining Cilantro into your blender.
Add in the Parmesan Cheese, Onion Powder, and Garlic Powder.
Drizzle in three or four tablespoons of Olive Oil to see if everything ‘moves’ once the blender is turned on. If things don’t look like they’re moving much, just add some more oil until your blender isn’t working so hard that it’s making YOU tired!
Remember, this is ‘to taste’ so if you don’t like an ingredient, omit it or substitute another spice/cheese that you’re more fond of.
I keep my Cilantro Sauce in a plastic food-grade squeeze bottle in the refrigerator. Now I never have to toss out Cilantro from my veggie bin that wasn’t used up fast enough! 🙂
Hi Muriel – Good work on the cilantro pesto! It is a great way to use up cilantro, that’s for sure. – Dax
Do I use all the stalks or just the leaves? The first time mine came out better than what I made today? Hope to get a response regarding the stems… Thank you! Mj
You can use stems and leafs.
Today is the second time I have made this and I really like it. I note in the original recipe that it says cook time 3 minutes. I never saw word on “how” to “cook it” and would really like to know. It might even be better and last longer as I’d put it in small bottles…Thank you! Mj
Hi Mary Jane… I put a cook time for the time it really only takes to put together. Chopping, stirring, etc. You actually don’t cook this sauce.