Green Goddess Dressing

Channel Your Inner Goddess With Our Best Green Goddess Dressing Recipe

You had us at green goddess. A more magnificent recipe name does not exist! We’re picturing flowing hair, and a world where everyone laughs at salads. Or, more realistically, a salad covered in a delicious cheese and herb-filled dressing. You’ve had your favorite Panera Green Goddess dressing and Trader Joe’s Green Goddess dressing, and possibly the OG Seven Seas Green Goddess dressing. Now you can make up a batch of our easy green goddess dressing and transport yourself to a dreamy green goddess world from scratch at home.

What Is Green Goddess Salad Dressing?

Green goddess dressing is a classic salad dressing that is attributed to a chef at San Francisco’s Palace Hotel in the 1920s. It is a riff on a very old French recipe for sauce au vert (literally “green sauce”), and is generally a blend of fresh tarragon, chives, and chervil, a dash of umami, and a creamy base. The original green goddess dressing recipe calls for mayonnaise and sour cream as a base, with anchovies providing an umami boost. More modern takes will include avocados and basil, and sometimes using Greek yogurt for the creamy base. Our homemade green goddess dressing calls for a few variations on the original, which we think you’ll be delighted to discover.

How To Make Green Goddess Dressing

Making homemade salad dressing is quite easy. Gather all of your ingredients, and blend in a blender or food processor. The consistency of your dressing can be altered by adding more olive oil.

1. Pick the leaves from the basil and parsley. If you’re in a hurry, you can definitely toss in the leaves and the stems, but we find that removing the leaves from the stems lends itself to a smoother dressing. If you have other herbs (cilantro, dill, and mint are great candidates) lingering in your fridge’s crisper, you can throw those in too!

2. Add all ingredients to the pitcher of a blender or the bowl of a food processor and blend until smooth. If the dressing is too thick, slowly add more olive oil, 1 tablespoon at a time.

A Few More Thoughts On Green Goddess Dressing

• Is Green Goddess Dressing Healthy? While the healthfulness of this or that food is a challenging question to answer, we think of our version as a healthy green goddess dressing because we call for goat cheese as the fat instead of mayonnaise. Goat cheese offers more protein and vitamins than mayo, and is generally less processed than store-bought mayonnaise. In general, homemade salad dressings are healthier than store-bought dressing.

• What does green goddess dressing taste like? Green goddess is like a walk through an herb garden, with a fresh squeeze of lemon. Its creamy texture is thicker than some salad dressings, but the tanginess of the goat cheese in our recipe for green goddess dressing isn’t as heavy as mayonnaise-based green goddess dressing.

• What is in green goddess dressing? In addition to herbs, a creamy base, fresh lemon juice, and garlic, green goddess dressing calls upon anchovies for an umami touch. We use fish sauce in our version–it’s easier and less messy, and we always have a bottle of fish sauce stocked in our fridge.

Tools You’ll Need

• Measuring cups and spoons

• A citrus press is helpful, but not necessary

• A high speed blender or food processor

More Homemade Pantry Recipes For Your Recipe Box

Are you looking for more recipes to replace your pantry with made from scratch dressings and sauces? Here’s a few more of our favorites from our recipe archives:

• Hollandaise Sauce

• Tahini Sauce

• Romesco Sauce

• Tzatziki Sauce

• Homemade Cocktail Sauce

• Homemade BBQ Sauce

Paging All Salad Goddesses, Your New Favorite Dressing Has Arrived

Are you a green goddess? Snap a photo of your salads and vegetables (a simple plate of carrots and cucumbers goes perfectly!) covered in our easy green goddess salad dressing recipe and maybe even a video of the beautiful people you feed it to. Tag us on Instagram using @themodernproper and #themodernproper. Happy eating!