Avocado Cilantro Dressing and Dip

You have stood in the salad dressing aisle and read every label, and put every bottle back. Soybean oil, canola oil, dairy, gums, a preservative you cannot pronounce. On AIP, greens go dry more often than not, and dry greens get abandoned. That adds up fast, because the protocol asks you to eat vegetables at nearly every meal, and if the vegetables are dry and joyless, you eat fewer of them.

This dressing solves it in 10 minutes. Avocado is the base, and its fat is mostly oleic acid, the same monounsaturated fat found in olive oil, thought to support a calmer inflammatory response in the body. Garlic goes in raw, which keeps more of its allicin intact than a cooked clove, and allicin is one of several sulfur compounds researchers connect to immune regulation.

Blend it, pour it, and let a bowl of raw vegetables become something you actually want, even after a hard day. Green, bright, a little sharp with lime: this is the kind of small, repeatable thing that makes an elimination phase survivable.

Ingredients

• 2 avocados, pitted and scooped out
• Juice of 2 limes
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1/3 cup chopped cilantro
• 1/4 cup chopped green onions
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 tsp sea salt

Method

Combine the avocado flesh, lime juice, garlic, cilantro, green onions, olive oil, and sea salt in a blender or food processor.

Blend until completely smooth, scraping down the sides as needed. The dressing will be thick and creamy. If you prefer a more pourable consistency, add water a tablespoon at a time and blend again until you reach the texture you want.

Taste and adjust the salt or lime juice as needed.

Use immediately, or press a piece of plastic wrap directly against the surface of the dressing before refrigerating - this prevents browning from oxidation. It will keep well for up to 2 days. Give it a good stir before using if it has been sitting in the fridge.

*Adapted from Wendi's AIP Kitchen*