Creamy Avocado Dip
This Mexican avocado dip recipe is an easy alternative to guacamole! Just whip it up in your food processor. Serve it as a party dip, or on tacos, nachos, quesadillas and much more.
Updated by Kathryne Taylor on August 27, 2024
Fair warning: You are going to want this avocado dip with every meal this week. I’m obsessed and I think you will be, too! It’s lusciously creamy, thanks to the ripe avocado, and bursting with fresh lime, cilantro and jalapeño flavor.
Like guacamole, you can serve this as a party dip with chips, or dollop it onto any remotely Mexican-ish meal. You can also thin out the avocado dip so it becomes more of a sauce, which you can drizzle onto nachos and more.
I make my guacamole by hand for the best texture, but this creamy dip is incredibly easy to to make in a food processor or blender. Just toss your a few basic ingredients into your machine of choice, and blend ’em up. Avocado dip is ready in five minutes, from start to finish.
Unlike store-bought creamy dips, this avocado dip is made with wholesome, plant-based ingredients. It’s a dip you can feel good about!
Uses for Avocado Dip
Think of this dip like guacamole! Here are a few ideas for this versatile avocado dip:
- As a party dip, with chips and/or crisp raw vegetables, such as carrot sticks, cucumber rounds, and bell pepper sticks.
- On tacos, burritos, quesadillas, tostadas, nachos—basically any Mexican entrée could benefit from this fresh sauce.
- As a salad dressing, thinned as necessary with additional water (or lime juice, for extra zip).
- Dollop it on scrambled eggs, roasted sweet potatoes, and/or black beans—avocado dip complements these flavors especially well!
Please let me know how you like this dip recipe! I always love reading your comments. If you’re craving more Mexican recipes, click here. I’ll be back with more in time for Cinco de Mayo.
Creamy Avocado Dip
This Mexican avocado dip recipe is an easy alternative to guacamole! Just whip up four basic ingredients in your food processor or blender. Serve this avocado dip as a party dip with vegetables or chips, or on tacos, nachos, quesadillas and more. Recipe yields about 1 ½ cups; double if necessary.
Ingredients
- 2 large avocados, halved and pitted
- ½ cup lightly packed fresh cilantro (some stems are okay)
- ⅓ cup lime juice (from about 2 ½ limes)
- 1 small jalapeño, seeds and ribs removed, roughly chopped
- 2 tablespoons water, more as needed to thin
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
Instructions
- Using a spoon, scoop the flesh of the avocados into a food processor or blender. Add the cilantro, lime juice, jalapeño, water, and salt.
- Process, stopping to scrape down the sides as necessary, until the sauce is smooth and creamy. (If the mixture refuses to blend, add additional water in 1-tablespoon increments, as necessary.)
- If you would like a thinner, more drizzly sauce, add water in 1-tablespoon increments until it reaches your desired consistency. Taste, and add more salt if it’s not quite flavorful enough.
- Transfer the avocado sauce to a small serving bowl. This sauce keeps well in the refrigerator, covered, for about 4 days.
Notes
Recipe adapted from my cookbook, Love Real Food.
Recommended equipment: I love my 11-cup Cuisinart food processor, since it handles small and large quantities like a champ (affiliate link).
Nutrition
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice. See our full nutrition disclosure here.
Hello…am new to your sphere of influence! Have been pouring over your recipes…just ordered your book through Amazon and it will be delivered today…very excited…thank you for what you create and share with our world…Blessings, Cynthia
Love that! I can’t wait to hear what you think of the book. :)
Just whipped up a batch, Kate, and it’s terrific! I smeared it on rice cakes and dipped carrots, celery, and chips just to try a number of things. All great compliments.
I read that most of the cilantro stems are good for you, besides the leaves, when making cilantro dishes like this I cut large chunks from a washed bunch of cilantro into my Cuisinart Mini Prep food processor and grind the leaves and stems up before adding to rest of ingredients.
Yours, Erik
Thank you, Erik for sharing! I appreciate your review.
Looks amazing!!! So creamy!!
Thank you!
Thank you!
Delicious! I am going to love this recipe!
Wonderful, Rylee! Thanks for the review.
It looks so creamy, delicious and healthy :) xoxo
Thank you!
Vaoov. It looks very nice. I want to do it. Thank you.
Thank you! Let me know what you think.
Wow. It’s delicious! Thank you.
As with all of your recipes this looks great, but I am curious, is it absolutely necessary to use cilantro? I absolutely hate the taste of it no matter how it’s used. Is there a substitute? Or can it be eliminated from all recipes?
If you don’t like it, you can leave it out. Since you don’t like cilantro, you wouldn’t miss the taste addition of the herb. :)
I use parsley when I don’t have cilantro on hand.
I cannot tolerate Cilantro either, nice to meet a fellow “hater”, lol. I usually use parsley whenever a recipe calls for the dreaded “C” word, but I’m wondering if a mix of parsley and basil would do this dip justice instead?
Anything with avocado is SO up my alley! Need to put this on literally everything.
I couldn’t agree more!! :)
Yay! Another great snack for weekend. Last salsa was delish so I guess so does it!
Thank you!
My daughter also hates cilantro. Could You use parsley instead?
Hi Terri, you could, but I’d probably just omit it!
I love making guacamole, but this is really nice for those who don’t like chunky guacamole (though I’m always Team Chunky ;) ). And you can NEVER pass on an opportunity to have more avocados. Someone told me that they don’t like avocados in quesadillas. That sounds BOMB to me!
Thanks Cassie! I appreciate it. Yes, good alternative for sure.
This avocado dip looks delicious. Before I had kids I used to make avo dip all the time. But then I became so short on time so… I’ve got to the point where I just mash up half an avocado and dip stuff into it and pretend it’s a dip!! Ridiculous, I know! Anyway I’m going to try this recipe as soon as I get some more cilantro and then I’ll be back into the routine of making a proper avocado dip again.
Sometimes you just need to improvise! I love it. Let me know what you think when you try it.
This was so delicious and made a great snack to have on hand for a few days! I’m going to make another batch in a moment, and may try a small amount of sour cream in it…not that it needs any changes…I just like to experiment.
Experimenting is one of the best things about cooking! Thank you, Lisa for the review.
Another dinner success! This was surprisingly tasty. I honestly passed this up thinking “eh” but then my friends had a fiesta dinner and I was dying for an excuse not to eat their steak or ground beef tacos so I made the refried beans for my tacos. Tonight I made the avocado sauce and pickled onions with it….YUM. And super easy!!
Great! If you would want to leave a star review, I would appreciate it. :)
This looks so yummy! I love creamy stuff and I’m a total guac junky. This also looks like a good mayo substitute.
Let me know what you think, Molly!
The best
Thank you!
Everyone I’ve served to for loves it. Not sure why it’s better than, guacamole, but it’s our new favorite appetizer.
Great to have with friends! Thanks for the review, Evy.
I’m lactose intolerant, so I made this as a “dairy-free substitute” for sour cream in tacos and burritos, and wow it was amazing! Happily ate up the leftovers today with some tortilla chips. The only thing I changed was using dried cilantro (a big tablespoons-worth) instead of fresh since I don’t keep fresh cilantro on hand. Will be making this on the regular :)
Great alternative for sure! I’m glad it hit the mark for you, Hayley. Dried cilantro, great that it worked for you here. I prefer fresh, hands down. Thanks for sharing!
Fresh cilantro is one of the few herbs I DON’T grow, so I had to make the substitution. Flavour was still there although I’m sure fresh cilantro is best!
I just made this and I loved it!!! We are avoiding peppers and tomatoes, so actual guacamole is out, and this is a great alternative! Creamy and smooth, practically mousse-like in texture. I will make this again and again. Thank you!
You’re welcome, Jill!
I’m no longer intimidated to go into my fridge and make this now!
I don’t love avocado but need to eat well.
Great, Katia!
I made this without coriander because I wasn’t growing it but it would be amazing with it in. I have a garlic and onion intolerance so it was great to see an avocado dip recipe not requiring these items as there aren’t many out there. Thank you!
You’re welcome, Sarah!
This dip is amazing!
Thank you, Regan!
The dip/sauce is silky smooth and looks good. However I found it quite bitter. The avocados gave it it’s velvety texture but you can’t taste them. The only thing I could taste was the bitterness of the lime. I adhered strictly to your recipe.
Maybe if I reduced the lime considerably it might be nicer for me – I’m sure some people might like the bitterness.
Hi Rick, thank you for your feedback! Yes, please adjust to your liking with the lime. You can always add a little more salt to help balance it out if needed.
Love your avocado dip recipe! It comes together so quickly, not much cleanup and tastes delicious on my tacos.
Delicious on tacos!
I have been making a similar avocado dip while wintering in AZ for the past several years… discovered it at the taco truck at the local swap meet.. after talking to locals, I add tomatillo, garlic, onion powder, and roasted hatch pepper that the local produce manager at the local IGA store does to your avocado and lime juice. I do not like cilantro so omit that.. it is awesome on battered baked fish, sandwiches, roast beef, inaddition to tacos, quesdillas, etc.
Thanks for sharing your version and what you like to serve it with, Marie!
Yum!! I made this last night and absolutely loved it! Took my taco dinner to the next level.
Hooray! I’m so happy to hear that.
This was very fresh and good! very filling as well. The best guacamole Ive ever had!
I love that, Michelle! Thanks for sharing your experience.
Hi, if I make this ahead do I need to worry about it turning brown? Or does the lime juice prevent this from happening? Thanks!
If you store in an sealed container, it should keep fine for a few days. The lime juice helps to preserve it.
I haven’t made this recipe yet, but I plan on doing it within the next week or so for my one year anniversary with my boyfriend. We recently decided to cut out dairy and meat from our diet, and your website has helped us tremedously! I will be making your Halloumi Tacos and making your pineapple salsa as well to go with it! I will be sure to comment again to tell you how everything goes! Thank you for all the recipes!
Happy early anniversary, Cailee! Yes, please tell me what you both think.
Another show stopper from this awesome blog, you’ve done it again. The first person who tasted it out of the food processor said it tasted like it belonged in a four star restaurant. Solid. THANK YOU.
You’re welcome, Joshua!
This is what I have been looking for, the sad thing is I only had 1 avocado on hand, delicious :)
Hooray! Thanks for your review, Nancy.
So simple and so dang delicious !!! Thanks for another great recipe , Kate :)
Thank you, Alania!
Another quick and easy recipe. It’s delicious, especially on top of Kate’s veggie nacho recipe. I didn’t make any adjustments to the dip. Highly recommend!
Thank you for the recipe – I loved it. I made it without cilantro and chilli as I whipped it up last minute for a group and didn’t know people’s pretences. Next time I’m making it to the recipe as I love those two ingredients – I might just cut back on how much I put in.
Thanks again
AMAZING. All of it.
Awesome! I added an extra tablespoon water to make it thinner and added canned diced jalepeno since I ran out of fresh. I also skipped the cilantro. soooooooooo yummy! Thank you!
I made your avocado pesto recipe (similar to this, and I didn’t have basil so I used cilantro), and it is outstanding. I’m sure this is equally fabulous.
I do not appreciate your political views, so I am unsubscribing. This is a recipe site, not a political forum.Good bye, hope you make more intelligent choices.
I love this recipe. I do leave the seeds in the jalapeno. Other than that it’s great as is.
Thanks for sharing, Annie!
This dip is so addicting! I’ve used it as a chip dip but also as a sauce for spicy Buffalo cauliflower tacos and chipotle jackfruit dishes. It adds such a bright and tasty component to anything!
Best guac recipe ever! Very moreish. I used jarred sliced jalapeños as fresh is hard to come by in Australia.
This was a nice change from a chunkier guac. I made some changes to spice it up a bit–a dash of ancho chili powder and 2 garlic cloves. I can’t imagine guac without garlic! I also charred the jalapeño on the stovetop before adding it. I am SOOOO glad I cut back on the lime juice to 1/4 cup. I actually used 2 avocados b/c I had ripe ones on hand. Even with that, the lime was a bit overwhelming. A little extra salt helped that. The texture is awesome. Letting the flavor mellow a bit before we enjoy it for Friday night apps! Thanks for the inspiration!
I love your creativity, Elizabeth! Thank you for sharing.
I made this today and it looks amazing and it’s pretty easy.. Thanks Kate.. just one thing, it tastes a bit sour for me, I don’t know if Lime juice needed to Be added gradually or all at once?
Hi! I’m sorry it is too sour for you. It is to be added all at once. Maybe cut down on the amount of lime next time.
Does it keep for a couple of day’s at least ..to make ahead of time .. dies it go brown is what I’m asking?
Hi! When avocados expose to air brown. If you cover it and store an onion with it or avocado pit, you may get a little more time.
Lovely
I could eat this every day. I’ve made this several times with no changes to the recipe. I make mine in a Vitamix and it is so creamy and silky. To keep it low carb I make my own tortilla chips from Mission Carb Balance tortillas. I cut them in 8 triangles and air fry at 350 for 5-7 minutes. Thanks for the great recipe. I never leave comments so that tells you how much I love this. Being a vegetarian diabetic my healthy food choices are a challenge for me.
Sounds delicious! Can I use pickled jalapeno peppers?
Hi! It works best with fresh and I haven’t tried it with pickled. If you try it, let me know!
I can honestly say I have never had a cook book or a website that has given me so many excellent recipes. Everything I try is just fantastic and so many have become my favorite things to make. Thank you for all the effort you put in to your site.
You’re so kind, Carol! Thank you for your review.
This was a yummy dip and so easy to make. One of the avocados was very hard and I wasn’t sure how it was going to turn out but it blended fine. I added more water.