What is Green Goddess Dressing
Green Goddess Dressing was created in San Francisco in the early 1920s and gets it’s name from its rich green color. It is typically made with a base of mayonnaise and sour cream and a combination of fresh herbs. All of this is true with this great Green Goddess Dressing recipe. It comes together in a blender or food processor, meaning there is very little prep time. Additionally, I’ve tried it a few different ways, so I have some great hints and tips for you.
The Base of Green Goddess Dressing
As mentioned above, historically the base of this dressing is sour cream and mayonnaise. That is what we are using here, but I have a few alternatives.
Replace the mayonnaise with more sour cream. If you are opposed to mayonnaise, you can use more sour cream. It will still taste delicious but without the flavor profile of mayonnaise. I love it this way as it reduces the calories and light sour cream is just less fat, no weird ingredients to make it lighter. Use avocado instead of mayonnaise or sour cream. In the years since this was first made, avocado has often been added to this dressing. You can replace either the mayonnaise or the sour cream with half an avocado. Replace the sour cream with plain non fat yogurt. If you only keep yogurt in your home, that will work well as a replacement for the sour cream.
Switching Up the Herbs
The total amount of herbs and greens in this Green Goddess Salad Dressing is about 2 cups. You can really go with any variety of herbs you’d like. I think the combination of flavors here is perfect, but you could always throw in some cilantro, mint, or basil too.
Using Stems
As you are measuring out the herbs for this recipe, please note that using some of the stems is fine. It will be really time consuming to try to remove all of them, especially from the parsley and dill. Any stem that is soft is fine to use. Thicker, rougher stems, should be discarded.
What to Put Green Goddess Dressing on
As mentioned above, this recipe is great as a dip for cut up vegetables. I love eating it with cut up cucumbers, carrots, and radishes. It also is perfect on some mixed greens as you see pictured here. Finally, it makes a really great sandwich spread. In my first round of making this dressing, I didn’t use any sweetener. It is delicious that way. That being said, I do think that the tiny bit of honey added in this version really balances the tart flavors of the lemon and the sour cream, while also mellowing out some of the intense flavors the herbs bring. You can experiment with this and try adding just a 1/2 teaspoon of honey at first and more to taste. Please also note that this recipe is even better after it has been refrigerated for a day. If you make this Green Goddess Dressing recipe or any of my other recipes, leave me a comment and let me know what you think!
