Delicious Cowboy Caviar Dip

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This cowboy caviar is a delicious and easy appetizer, bursting with flavor from the zesty lime dressing. It’s the perfect dip for snacking.

Are you planning a party? Check out this pull-apart pepperoni cheese bread – it’s a huge crowd and party pleaser!

chip with chopped cowboy caviar dip recipe

As someone who is gluten-free, I’m pretty addicted to various combos of fresh salsa, guacamole, and tortilla chips. This dip (versions of which are often called ‘Cowboy Caviar’) combines all the best things about guac and fresh salsa into one mouth-watering gluten-free recipe.

It’s easy to make, too! A little bit of rinsing, chopping, and mixing and you have a party-worthy dish everyone will love! Another bonus? This recipe makes a TON, so you can make a big batch and save some for home, take it all to feed a crowd, or eat it for dinner. I won’t tell. 😉

A tortilla chip with fresh salsa on it

Fresh Ingredients In Cowboy Caviar

This dish has the perfect combination of ingredients: avocado, onion, and garden-fresh tomatoes. These fresh vegetables make for a scrumptious dish that will have you craving more.

If you want this to taste the best, use ingredients that are as fresh as possible. This dish is all about those layered flavors!

Let’s look at little closer at the main ingredients – including the best types to use and any replacements or substitutions you can make.

Avocado

I know the struggle to buy and eat fresh avocado. Here are some of my best avocado-buying tips.

First, buy it when it is fresh and make this dip the same day. You will know the avocado is ripe because when you press down on the stem, it will indent gently. If it falls in too quickly, it’s too ripe and if the stem is too tough to push in, it’s not ripe yet.

If you want to bring home an avocado that isn’t ripe yet, that works too. Simply place it in a paper bag with a banana. This will ripen it in just one day (or two at the most).

Tomatoes

Any type of fresh tomato will work in this dip. If you use grape or cherry tomatoes, you just have to slice them. They are easier to chop up for dips than large red tomatoes, but both work just fine.

Personally, I like to make this dip with vine-fresh garden tomatoes because they are so sweet. That extra sweetness plays really well off the other flavors in this “caviar”.

Onion

I always use red onion in my dips and salads because it has such a fantastic flavor! However, if you don’t have red onions, you can use white or yellow.

Cowboy caviar dip with cilantro on top

Lime

To make the dip a bit sweeter and more tangy, I recommend adding lime juice. If you want to maximize freshness, use freshly squeezed lime juice instead of jarred varieties. However, if this is too time consuming for you then it’s perfectly fine to use bottled or canned versions as well!

Another option is to use lime essential oil. YES, you can cook with it! But please don’t use just any brand of oil, use one that’s 100% pure like Young Living because you are ingesting it. Your body matters and you don’t want to put junk in it! Young Living has a special line of oils called Vitality oils that are labeled for ingestion, and lime is one of them. The oils don’t expire so I keep a bottle on hand for whenever the lime mood strikes (hello, margaritas!)

Cilantro

I realize not everyone is a cilantro person. The flavor always hits the spot for me, but I know not everyone is on that boat! If you want to avoid it altogether then feel free – parsley would work as well and will have more of an impactful taste than mild-mannered leafy greens like spinach or kale.

Chilis Or Peppers

Let’s talk about heat. If you like some spice, use jalepeños. If you don’t love heat, you can use 1 TB canned diced green chilis for a little pop of flavor without tons of heat.

Just remember to use caution when seeding and dicing jalepeños as the oils can stay on your fingers for awhile and irritate skin and eyes. I use latex gloves when I chop spicy peppers after learning this the hard way when taking out my contact lenses one night. Even though I’d washed my hands, it still burned!

A blue tortilla chip with cowboy caviar dip

Enough pretty pictures, I know what you’re really here for: the recipe.

How to Make Cowboy Caviar Dip (Video)

How to Make Cowboy Caviar Dip (Recipe)

cowboy caviar dip in bowl
Print Recipe
5 from 1 vote

Delicious Cowboy Caviar Dip

Delicious and easy chopped veggie dip that's served with tortilla chips and perfect for summer!
Prep Time15 minutes
Course: Appetizer
Cuisine: Southwestern
Author: Carrie

Ingredients

Dressing

Dip

Instructions

  • Wisk together dressing ingredients and set aside.
  • Place dip ingredients in a medium sized bowl, top with dressing, and gently stir until combined.
  • Transfer to a pretty dish. Top with a sprig of cilantro and serve with tortilla chips.
OMG this Cowboy Caviar dip recipe looks amazing and so easy to make for my next summer cookout!

I’ve seriously had to wrestle this stuff away from people at parties. If you are going to serve it at a party, you might want to double the recipe!

What to Eat with Cowboy Caviar

This dip is served best with Tortilla chips, but you can get fancy with the type or just choose your favorite. You can also use grain-free chips. If you’re watching your carbs, you can make veggie chips by slicing fresh veggies and scooping with them. Carrots, celery, or cucumbers make vegetable based dip vessels.

What to Pair with Cowboy Caviar

This is the perfect dish for summer, so it’s yummy to pair with grilled food such as burgers, chicken, or meat. We’ve also had it as a side dish for sandwiches, on top of salads, as a topping for bruschetta. Kabobs are a great pairing, or serve it as a side dish or appetizer for any summer party… really!

What’s your favorite go-to summer party recipe?

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cowboy caviar dip in bowl

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