Learn how to make the best aji verde sauce! Aji verde is spicy Peruvian green sauce, made with cilantro, jalapeños, and a little mayonnaise and Parmesan. It is utterly irresistible drizzled onto tacos and more! Recipe yields about 1 1/4 cups.

Aji Verde (Spicy Peruvian Green Sauce)

mayonnaise (I love Sir Kensington’s brand)

jalapeños,

garlic, roughly chopped

(1 ounce) grated Cotija or Parmesan cheese

lime juice

fine sea salt

In a food processor or blender, combine all of the ingredients. Blend until the cilantro has broken into very tiny pieces and the sauce is green and mostly smooth (no matter how long you blend it, it will still have some texture to it).

Taste, and adjust if necessary. This sauce is intentionally bold and spicy and I usually think it&#8217;s just right as written. However, if the flavor is too overwhelming, blend in 1 tablespoon of olive oil while running the food processor. If it&#8217;s not spicy enough, add some of the reserved jalapeño seeds and blend again. If it doesn&#8217;t have enough zip, add another tablespoon of lime juice and/or a pinch of salt.

Aji verde keeps well in the refrigerator, covered, for about 1 week.

This sounds so good!  There’s a Peruvian restaurant near me that’s SO GOOD, you literally have to wait for an hour to get in all the time.  They make a sauce similar to this and it’s amazing!  Can’t wait to try this version :).

I am from Peru, and I can tell you that your recipe it is not at all our Green Sauce. You HAVE to use Aji Amarillo, not Jalapeño, since we don't have that one in my country. We don't put cilantro, we use Huacatay, a herb indigenous  that don't taste like mint. If you don't find it raw you can use Huacatay Paste. We use "queso blanco fresco", (this is not the Dominican one you find at the groceries), that you can replace with Fetta cheese. We don't use mayonnaise, we use oil at the end, that is how you get the texture. I love most of your recipes, but I feel very disappointed that you have changed totally a traditional typical recipe from my country. Perhaps it is not your fault.

Hi Kate,

I know you always try to be accurated, but I wanted to clarify the mistakes this recipe has, with the only intention that your devoted followers, I include myself, get the best of one of the most traditional sauces we are proud of. You will see the difference when you use the Ají Amarillo and the Huacatay, also we don’t make it on the food processor, we use the blender to mix all the dry ingredients, adding little by little the oil. However, there are places that still make this one using the “Batan” (this is stone table) and the “chaquena” (this is an oblong river stone). I guess the people that gave you the recipe use Jalapeño because could be cheaper than the Ají Amarillo, as well the cilantro instead of the Huacatay. I wish you the best, my dear, and thank you for taking the time to answer!

Hey there!! Do we have to add lime to your version of Peruvian green sauce? Thank you

Zaida, Kate did try to identify the differences if you read her commentary prior to the recipe.  Also for the sake of accuracy feta as in cheese has one t not two.

Hi Zaida.  I am also Peruvian and I will tell you what I say to many of my countrymen.  This recipe is perfect, it is true that the ingredients vary as not all are available worldwide.  Please understand that part of the fame of Peruvian food is that everyone can prepare and enjoy it from their homes.  The green pepper in this recipe has been created by Peruvian chefs in the United States by not having the ingredients used in Peru.  Isn't that what the Chinese and the Japanese did when mixing their food with ours?

Regardless if this is authentic Peruvian green sauce or not it is absolutely delicious! Yes not all of the ingredients are available worldwide so we try to improvise and imitate as close as possible. I have a few Peruvian restaurants close by and I will try my best and my luck to see if one of them can give me any tips on the actual authentic sauce itself. I'm a huge foodie and love to experiment and try new things from all cultures ❤ lots of love to everyone!

Very rude. She obviously did the best she could. No need to attack her. You could've educated her in a nice way.

Any day I receive message from Cookie and Kate is a good...no, great...day! You are such a positive force for good in this world! Thanks, Susan from Austin

I am not vegan but I need to take vegan dishes to the potlucks I attend, so today as an experiment I made 1/2 a batch using Cookie &amp; Kate's vegan sour cream recipe (I happened to have some on hand already) and 1/2 a batch with Sir Kingston's Fabanaise (aquafaba).  They both worked adequately as substitutions. If I have time to make vegan sour cream, or if like today I have some already on hand, that one was a little more my preference.  However, in a pinch, the Sir Kingston's Fabanaise works also, although the sauce was a little more dull than with the homemade vegan sour cream.  Even with the vegan adaptations it is a fantastic condiment, and I look forward to making the recipe as written it for myself.  But now I know that I have another excellent sauce to take as part of a dish for vegan-friendly potlucks.

Kate, this was recipe is wonderful!
Your post dropped in my mailbox right when I was deciding what sauce to put on my homemade spinach and mushroom ravioli. I said, "Hey, let's try it. Kate says she puts it on everything"! 
And you accomplished what you set out to do, peak my interest in Peruvian food.
I made this using cotija, cilantro and jalapeno peppers picked fresh from the garden and greenhouse. I can only imagine that it will be even better after the flavors have time to join in the dance of time.
Thank you Kate (and Cookie) for sharing this and making our eyes light up at dinner tonight!

Cannot wait to try this on the weekend - thank you so much for all your wonderful recipes - I uses them ALL - your raspberry muffins are made every other week in my house (the kids say "can we have something different for lunch this week Mum") and your vegetarian chilli con carne has been made twice in April.
Thank you so much!

Zaida and Kate
I want to thank both Zaida and Kate for their civil dialog. Both expressed their views and stated their concerns without falling into the ranting and raving that we all see so much of online.
I learned somethings about the wonderful country of Peru. My wife and I spent several weeks in Peru not long ago and loved the food.
I also found and made a great recipe!
Thanks to both of you.

Another perfect sauce, Kate! I'll be surprised if there is much left for the tacos . . .

Had this with chimichangas last night and my boyfriend will not stop raving about it. It was like a spicy coriander pesto.

Mine turned out thicker than yours, I think - not pouring consistency - maybe I packed in more cilantro? Used 1/4 cup parmesan because I was scared of it being too cheesy. We don't have fresh jalapenos here; I suspect my sauce was less spicy for using the pickled ones.

Very yum, will definitely make again, thank you!

Love it!!! So good!!!! This has opened a new gateway of food for me. Thanks for sharing.

This sauce is so delish!  I’m thinking of using it as the mixture for deviled eggs, yum!!!

Oh man, new favorite sauce right here. This was great on the halloumi tacos, and I'm sure will taste good on just about anything else, too!

The flavor was good, but I thought it could have been more concentrated, I would cut back on the mayo next time to have a thicker, more flavorful sauce.

Made this sauce last night as a topping for rice bowls - really tasty! I was concerned about the amount of mayo, but it doesn't end up tasting like mayo at all. Looking forward to using the rest of the sauce on the halloumi tacos next week! Thanks Kate!

aji verde (spicy peruvian green sauce)

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Total: 10 minutes

Servings: 1

Author : Cookie and Kate

Ingredients

Instructions

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