Cafe Rio Creamy Tomatillo Dressing

A very good friend of ours is from Salt Lake City, Utah so when a Cafe Rio opened about a mile from our office she almost exploded with excitement!  Cafe Rio is labeled as a Mexican food restaurant - although anyone from California would argue with this, the food is really tasty!  I personally love the Fire Grilled Steak Salad which is a gigantic flour tortilla filled with romaine lettuce, fire grilled steak, cheese, tortilla strips and your choice of dressing.  I always, always get the Creamy Tomatillo Dressing! The dressing has a wonderful spiciness that I love, which pairs wonderfully with the cool lettuce and marinaded steak.

I am obsessed with this dressing!!  I knew that I couldn't go to Cafe Rio every day just for the dressing so I started looking on the internet for a recipe.  I found a couple of copy cat recipes and merged them together with what I had one hand to create a dressing that is almost as good as the original!  It tasted better as it sits in the fridge so I suggest making it the night before you want to use it.   This will be a repeat recipe in our house - I paired it with a marinade trip tip to make my very own version of the salad!

Cafe Rio Creamy Tomatillo Dressing

2 tomatillos, peeled and quartered
1 package dry ranch dressing mix
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup greek yogurt
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 clove garlic
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
juice of one lime
1 small jalapeno, chopped and seeds removed

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Roast tomatillos for 10 minutes.  Cool slightly.

Place all items into blender and process until smooth.  Refrigerate until use.  The flavor gets better over time.  Keeps in the fridge for up to a week.

ENJOY!