This Creamy Jalapeño Sauce is perfect for tacos, salads, burrito bowls, grilled proteins, and so much more! Ready in just minutes with only 3 ingredients (minus pantry staples), it's a condiment you'll want to have on hand at all times!
One of our favorite salsas has always been the taqueria-style jalapeño sauce that's sometimes served with street-style tacos at your local Mexican restaurant. It's richer than a salsa fresca or pico de gallo and is super creamy from the cooked jalapeños. We love the richness of it and it goes so well with so many things. We bet you're going to love this creamy jalapeño sauce recipe just as much as we do!
You may also recognize that this sauce is similar to Trader Joe's jalapeño sauce. We LOVE their sauce but we don't love the highly processed oils it contains. We were super excited when we nailed this recipe and can now have this sauce on hand all week long for dunking, drizzling, and dipping.
Not only is the avocado oil so much better than canola oil, but our homemade version doesn't need to have gums and stabilizers added to it. All around, our main goal is to feed ourselves fresh, vibrant, and healing foods and a homemade recipe made with high-quality ingredients is always going to be better than something bottled and processed. We try to live by that 90% of the time because lets be honest, no one is 100% and healthy doesn't have to equal perfection.
Now, let's get to the specifics on how to make this creamy jalapeño sauce!
Ingredients in this Creamy Jalapeño Sauce recipe
- jalapeños - the peppers we used for this recipe were pretty large as you can see in the images, if yours are smaller, simply increase the quantity. This recipe is forgiving on ratios so just eyeball the amount equal to 10 large jalapeños
- onion - any type you have on hand but we like this sauce the most with a yellow or white onion
- garlic - fresh peeled cloves
- avocado oil - you can also use olive oil, flaxseed oil, or liquid coconut oil but we find that avocado oil has the most neutral flavor that doesn't overpower the jalapeño flavor. It's a 1:1 replacement for vegetable oil while being 10000% healthier.
- lime juice - fresh-squeezed, bottled juices do not play well in recipes
- ground cumin
- sea salt
How to make the sauce
- First, you'll slice the stems off the jalapeños and place them in a large pot of boiling water.
- Boil for 5-10 minutes or until the peppers are very soft. Drain and transfer to a food processor along with the onion, garlic cloves, lime juice, cumin, and sea salt.
- Blend until smooth then, with the motor running, slowly stream in the avocado oil and process just until creamy.
Notes: The sauce can be served immediately but the flavor will develop further over 6-8 hours and the sauce will become slightly thicker after refrigeration. We find that this sauce is at its peak the day after making. If you don't have a blender, a food processor or even an immersion blender will work.
Using different peppers
We are a bit obsessed with peppers over here, the spicier the better too. We've got big plans to try this method with serrano, habanero, and Thai chilies. Did you try a different pepper? We'd love to hear about it in the comment section below 👇
What to serve with Creamy Jalapeño Sauce
The sky is the limit! Here are a few ideas:
- drizzled over our Keto Street-Style Cauliflower 😍
- use as a dunking sauce or marinade for grilled proteins
- eat as a snack with low-carb tortilla chips or fresh-cut veggies
- drizzled onto burrito bowls, salads, over even a soup like this Chile Relleno Soup
- Smeared onto low-carb bread with a few slices of cheese (dairy-free if you're plant-based obv - we love Violife), grilled onions and jalapeños and maybe some avocado and micro greens for one epic grilled cheese 😱 ...<-- yes, do that one, none of the other ideas even come close to this level of deliciousness 😉
How to store Creamy Jalapeño Sauce
We like to store this creamy jalapeño sauce in a glass jar with a tight-fitting lid but we've also been known to store it in a squeeze bottle for easy drizzling!
Creamy Jalapeño Sauce
Ingredients
- 10 large jalapeño peppers stems removed leaving the pepper whole
- 1 small onion any color, yellow is our preference
- 4 large cloves garlic
- 2 tablespoons fresh-squeezed lime juice
- ½ teaspoons fine sea salt
- ¼ - ½ teaspoon ground cumin
- ⅓ cup avocado oil
Instructions
- Slice the stems off the jalapeños, leaving the pepper whole, and place them in a large pot of boiling water.
- Boil for 5-10 minutes or until the peppers are very soft. Drain and transfer to a food processor along with the onion, garlic cloves, lime juice, cumin, and sea salt.
- Blend until smooth then, with the motor running, slowly stream in the avocado oil and process just until creamy. Taste for salt and cumin add a pinch more if necessary. Refrigerate until ready to serve *[see notes].
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional values are estimates only and do not include carbs from sugar alcohols.
Svetlana says
Do I need to remove seeds?
Cast Iron Keto says
The seeds are what give it some spice but if you'd like a milder sauce you can deseed the peppers.
chris says
I wouldn't describe it as creamy, but it is good! spicy and flavorful!
Erin M. says
This is so delicious (and hot)! I put it on scrambled eggs this morning, but I can't wait to try it on some tacos or carne asada. It tastes even better the day after you make it.
Lorena Reynolds says
I make this sauce is very good but the one from Trade Joe's does not have cumin or any other spice neither onion.