Chipotle Lime Dressing

There are a lot of things you can learn in the kitchen, but some of the most important lessons actually come from unlearning.

Most of us have spent our lives surrounded by diet culture and wellness messaging that taught us to see food through a moral lens. One that tells you you’re “good” for ordering a salad and “bad” for ordering dessert, and that choosing one ingredient over another says something (if not everything) about your discipline, your values, or even your character.

Those messages simply aren’t true, but when we’ve heard them over and over and over, they’re hard to ignore.

I’m definitely biased, but I think cooking is one of the best ways to practice unlearning those messages.

It reminds us that different ingredients and recipes have different jobs, not moral value. Instead of thinking about them in the context of “good” or “bad”, we start thinking about their purpose - things like flavor, texture, convenience, and even satisfaction.

So if you’re ready to practice unlearning, give this Chipotle Lime dressing a go.

• Time: <5 minutes

• How to prepare: gather tools + ingredients

• How it tastes: this one does have a little kick from the chipotle, but you can mellow it out with more honey if you prefer!

• Deep bowl or glass measuring cup

• Measuring cups + spoons

• Microplane

• Knife + cutting board

• Immersion blender or regular blender

• Olive or avocado oil - 1/2 cup

• Lime - 1, juice and zest

• Garlic - 1 clove, peeled and grated

• Chipotle in adobo - 1 large (you can freeze the rest in an ice cube tray for later use! You’ll notice in the video that the one I use is in cube form because it came straight from the freezer.)

• Honey - 1.5 tablespoons

• Diamond Crystal kosher salt - 1/2 teaspoon (start with less if using table or sea salt)

Add everything to a deep bowl or blender and blend until combined!

Here’s a video too:

Storage: keep in the fridge for 1-2 weeks. It will firm up once it’s cold, so just let it sit for a few minutes at room temp before using.

Ways to enjoy: Drizzle over roasted sweet potatoes, shrimp or chicken tacos or fajitas, grilled chicken or steak

Use a sauce for your favorite bowl (currently loving the combo in the video - diced, roasted sweet potatoes, red onion, and bell peppers; roasted corn (frozen from TJ’s); beans; chicken, avocado!)