Aji Verde substitute
Make it in a blender
Makes about 1 cup, use 1:1
One packed cup of cilantro including the stems, half a cup of mayonnaise, one or two jalapenos seeded to taste, one garlic clove, two tablespoons of lime juice, two tablespoons of grated cotija or parmesan, salt, blended smooth.
Other aji verde substitutes
Ranked, with the exact amount to use
Substitutes for Aji Verde with ratios
2Cilantro-lime crema or bottled green sauce
Close matchWhat changes
- Best for
- grilled chicken, tacos and burrito bowls, salad dressing, dipping
The closest bottled swap and often literally the same recipe. What changes: commercial versions are usually built on sour cream rather than mayonnaise, so they taste tangier and lighter and less rich, and they are almost always much milder because manufacturers hedge on heat. Half a fresh jalapeno blended in, or a few dashes of hot sauce, brings it back into range. If it tastes thin, a tablespoon of mayonnaise per half cup restores the body.
3Chimichurri thinned with mayonnaise
Different tasteWhat changes
- Best for
- grilled steak and chicken, sandwiches, roast vegetables, when a jar of chimichurri is what you have
A genuinely good sauce and clearly not aji verde, which is worth knowing before you serve it. What changes: chimichurri is built on parsley and oregano with red wine vinegar, so it tastes markedly more herbal, more oregano-forward and sharper, and it lacks the specific green brightness that cilantro gives. Adding a tablespoon of lime juice per half cup shifts the acidity from vinegar towards citrus, which helps a lot. Blitz it briefly if you want it smooth, since chimichurri is usually chopped rather than blended.
4Tomatillo salsa verde blended with mayonnaise
Different tasteWhat changes
- Best for
- grilled chicken, tacos, eggs, rice bowls, dipping
Easy, fast and reasonably convincing at a glance since the colour is right. What changes: tomatillos are tart in a distinctive fruity, almost gooseberry-like way that aji verde does not have, so the sauce tastes sharper and more vegetal and less creamy-herbal. It is also usually thinner, hence the mayonnaise. If you have any cilantro at all, blending in even a small handful moves this substitute much closer, because cilantro is the flavour people are actually recognising.
5Zhoug or green chilli chutney blended with mayonnaise
Different tasteWhat changes
- Best for
- grilled chicken, kebabs, sandwiches, roast cauliflower
Works better than it sounds, because both sauces are fundamentally coriander, green chilli and garlic. What changes: zhoug usually includes cumin and often cardamom or caraway, so the sauce carries a warm spiced note that reads Middle Eastern rather than Peruvian, and it is generally considerably hotter, which is why the ratio here is more cautious. Add lime juice rather than lemon to pull it towards aji verde, and taste before salting since many jarred zhougs are salty.
6Parsley instead of cilantro, for cilantro-haters
Different tasteWhat changes
- Best for
- households where someone cannot eat cilantro, grilled chicken, potatoes
Worth being straight about this one: cilantro is the defining flavour of aji verde, so a parsley version is not aji verde and will not taste like it. What you get instead is a pleasant creamy green herb sauce, milder and grassier, missing the citrusy pungency that makes the original distinctive. The extra lime is important, because parsley brings much less aromatic lift and the sauce goes flat without it. A handful of basil alongside the parsley adds back some of the perfume.
What is Aji Verde?
Aji Verde is Aji verde, also called Peruvian green sauce or simply green aji, is a creamy blended sauce of fresh green chilli, a large quantity of cilantro, garlic, lime and mayonnaise or crema, served alongside pollo a la brasa and grilled meats.
Cooking tips
- Use the cilantro stems, not just the leaves. The stems carry more of the aromatic compounds than the leaves do and they blend smooth without any woodiness, so discarding them throws away flavour and volume for no reason. Only the very thickest lower stems are worth trimming off.
- Control the heat by seeding the chillies, not by using fewer of them. Most of the capsaicin sits in the pale membrane inside, so scraping that out leaves you the full green chilli flavour at a fraction of the heat. Cutting the number of chillies instead makes the sauce milder and blander at the same time, which is the wrong trade.
- The cheese is what makes it taste like a restaurant version. Two tablespoons of grated cotija, queso fresco or parmesan per cup adds a salty, faintly funky savoury depth that most home versions are missing without knowing why. Add it before you add any salt, since it is salty in itself.
- Do not heat it. This is a mayonnaise or crema-based sauce, so warming it will split it into a greasy, grainy mess. It is meant to be spooned cold or at room temperature onto hot food, and if you want a warm green sauce for a pan, use the herbs with cream or stock instead and stir them in off the heat.
- It thickens in the refrigerator and dulls after a couple of days. A fresh batch keeps three or four days covered, and the colour fades from bright green towards olive as it goes. Loosen it with a tablespoon of water and refresh it with a squeeze of lime rather than making more, and blend in a few fresh cilantro leaves if it has gone drab.
Frequently asked questions
What is aji verde actually made of?
Can I use aji amarillo paste instead of fresh jalapeno?
Can I just leave it out?
Is aji verde spicy?
How long does it keep?
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