I have stated earlier that I am not a big fan of the trendy “Mexican” restaurants around this area (Cafe Rio and Costa Vida), because their food is basically candied. Not even near spicy enough, and an extreme lack of a range of flavors. These places are so one dimensional it is funny. Anyway, it occurred to me after a few months the big draw of these places are their salads and more specifically their “special” dressing. I knew that this dressing was just a tomatillo ranch dressing with a few other things, so I searched a bit and the recipe below is almost exactly the same as the dressing used in the restaurants. So now, you can make your own salads without forking over money to these posers.
You HAVE to use Hidden Valley Ranch or the ranch gods will smite you with a curse so terrible you will never recover. If you use fat free Kraft Ranch then may heaven help your soul. And if you don’t want to offend them at all, actually buy the ranch seasoning packet and mix it with Best Foods mayo. Kraft or any other mayo is heretic. You just make a large batch of this stuff and it lasts for weeks. It is good on salads, fajitas, burritos, rice, and scrambled eggs.
Creamy Tomatillo Dressing
Place the following in a blender:
3 fresh tomatillos, cut into quarters
juice of 1/2 lime
1/2 cup buttermilk (or make w/dry buttermilk mix)
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup sour cream
1 package of dry Ranch Buttermilk Dressing Mix
1 cup fresh cilantro (abt. one bunch)
5 stalks (1/2 bunch) of green onions w/ends
2 cloves crushed garlic
1/2 to 3/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. crushed cayenne pepper
Combine well in blender and refrigerate one hour.
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