Debi’s Magic Green Sauce–The World’s Greatest Dip
If someone said to you that from now on you had just one choice for making a dip for a party, then you’d be obligated to choose this one. I have other really good dips on this website that your guests will like very much, but none that get swooned over quite as much as this one does. I get asked about it every time it shows up at a party or reception for which I’ve provided food. At a wedding reception I’d made a basinful of it, and at one point an aunt of the bride burst into the kitchen and said something like, “Who made that cilantro stuff?!” When I modestly cast down my eyes and said I had, she informed me that her husband was from Mexico and had loved it, saying it was very authentic. Which is pretty funny, as you’ll see below, since I got it from a Minnesota source.
I got the original recipe from a monster cooking blog called Pinch of Yum, where it was called “5-Minute Magic Green Sauce.” (Original in the sense of where I originally got it; there are other versions of this online although not, that I can see, with this exact mix of ingredients. Some just add pistachios to regular guacamole.) It is totally great, but let me say that this isn’t really a 5-minute recipe, with all due respect where respect is due. I do save quite a bit of time when I make it nowadays, though, by following the helpful hint about cilantro stems that I list in the recipe. I used to spend I don’t know how much time stripping the leaves from the cilantro stems. However, no matter how much time it takes, it is well worth making. When I made this the first time for a reception, people scarfed this down like you wouldn’t believe, and then stood around the bowl forlornly scraping out the last molecules with pita chips. I should have made at least a double recipe that time, and indeed I usually do so now. The recipe is really a combination of a type of pesto (the herb/oil/nut component) and guacamole (the avocado/jalapeno/lime component). Lindsay Ostrom, the original recipe’s author, says it can be used as a dip, spread or salad dressing depending on how thin you make it. It could work on a very sturdy salad with lots of crunchy ingredients and would be good on any kind of meat or fish as a sauce (my son tasted it and said, “This would be really good with beef”), with any raw vegetable as a dip, or with some type of neutral-flavored chip or cracker. In my version below I took out the water (which you could add back in if you want a dressing) and upped the avocado and the jalapeno.
Debi's Magic Green Stuff--The World's Greatest Dip
Ingredients
- 1 bunch cilantro lower stems removed, washed well*
- 1/4 cup lime juice I just use the bottled stuff.
- 1-2 jalapenos seeds and ribs removed, cut into 1" or so pieces You don't want the dip to be too spicy for the general public, but you do want a nice burn. You could add one pepper and taste, then add a second one if you think it's needed.
- 2-3 cloves garlic pressed
- 3/4 cup olive oil
- 3/4 cup pistachios**
- 2 avocados
- 1 tsp. salt, or to taste, depending partly on whether or not you've used salted pistachios.
Instructions
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Put the first four ingredients in the food processor and finely chop, then add oil and process until paste-like. Then add the pistachios and process until the mixture is as coarse or as fine as you like. Add avocados and process until fairly smooth--they won't take much. Finally, as above, taste for salt and add, process, and taste again.
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You'll almost certainly want to make this ahead of time, and since it has avocado in it you need to protect it from air or it will turn dark. So put it into a bowl and brush a little lime juice over the top. Then press plastic wrap directly on it. You can then put a regular cover on the bowl, but having a barrier directly on the surface is the only way to guard against darkening because that's the only way to keep the air off of it. BTW, I'll allow myself a little indulgence here in which I address the "bury the avocado pit in the guacamole to keep it from darkening" old wives' tale. That only works for the little portion of the dip that's covered by the pit. So you can do it if you want to, as it won't hurt anything, but you can't depend on it to take of the whole kahuna.
Recipe Notes
*Pati Jinich of "Pati's Mexican Table" on Create TV says that cilantro stems have a lot of flavor. So when I made this recipe a second time I just cut off and discarded the lower cilantro stems at the point where the leaves started and threw the top part into the food processor. (Give the leaves a good rinse first--they can harbor sand. I use my salad spinner to do this.) Much, much easier than picking off the leaves! Also, if you don't like cilantro, or would like a slightly different flavor, you can use part parsley. But really, cilantro is the way to go!
**Yes, these are expensive. Best way to buy them is in the bulk foods aisle of a natural grocery store such as Sprouts, or, if you can find them shelled, at a warehouse club such as Costco. The original recipe called for raw, unsalted pistachios, but for the most recent party I spotted a bag of shelled, roasted and salted ones at Costco and buying them was going to save me an extra stop at another store, so I went ahead and bought them. I thought that the dip had a greater depth of flavor made with this ingredient, but you could use whichever version you can find. If you do use the salted ones, be sure to leave out the salt until you have a chance to taste the mixture. Remember, even if you have to get an expensive ingredient in order to make something yourself you're still going to be paying less than you would if you bought the item pre-made--not that you'd be able to find this particular item in any store.