The Green Goddess Helps Those Who Help Themselves (A Salad Dressing)

So Marianne and I continue preparing food that encourages healthy eating and healthy weight for the new year. I like to make one meal a day a salad; as crunchy and varied as possible. Unless my mom is home making the powdered Italian stuff in the cruet (which I freely admit I love), I generally make my own, simple vinaigrettes or tahini-based dressings, but clearly it is time to branch out.

Do pack the tablespoon with the herbs; it is very hard to get an accurate measure of this, isn’t it?

Marianne’s brother, Peter, is famous for his Green Goddess dressing (and his pecan pie, but that’s for another day when I get his recipe!) and although I’d never had it before (see dressing history, below) , I happened upon a Green Goddess recipe in Food to Live By: The Earthbound Farm Organic Cookbook  (a personal favorite that Marianne’s boys gave me a few years ago, as it happens) and well…game on!

Very airy in dressing form

History:

Green Goddess Dressing– A salad dressing that is a mixture of mayonnaise, anchovies, tarragon vinegar, parsley, scallions, garlic, and other spices.

The Green Goddess Dressing created at San Francisco’s Palace Hotel (now called the Sheraton-Palace) in the 1920s. The Palace Hotel was built in 1875 and was San Francisco’s first grant lodging hotel. The Palace Hotel was considered the largest hotel in the western United States.

The hotel’s executive chef, Philip Roemer, named the dressing for English actor George Arliss (1868-1846), who stayed at the hotel and also ate in the Palm Court restaurant during the time he performed in the play called The Green Goddess. This play was considered the best play of the 1920-21 Broadway season and it later became on the earliest “talkie” movies in 1930. The actor frequently complemented San Francisco’s marvelous weather and proclaimed that it induced a healthy appetite.

From What’s Cooking America  by Linda Stradley, (Click here for the history of salads and dressings!)

We actually made two versions, one with lowfat sour cream for Marianne and with lowfat yogurt for me. She didn’t want the anchovies and I most certainly did. So we whirred all the veg in the food processor together, then split them up and finished them separately. They made about 1.5 Cups of dressing each – the sour cream version being much more thick and dip-worthy, and the yogurt version clearly good only for pouring. We were each very happy and I think you will be too. All Hail the Green Goddess!

Left, Green Goddess dressing; right, dip

Green Goddess Dressing

2 anchovy fillets, patted dry (optional)

2 small cloves garlic, peeled

2 scallions, including white and 3 inches of green, trimmed and cut into ½ chunks

1 Tbs packed fresh cilantro

2 Tbs packed fresh flat-leaf parsley

1 tsp dried dill (1 Tbs if using fresh)

1 tsp dry tarragon

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp salt

2 Tbs white vinegar

Dairy two options:

1)      Thick – ¾ low-fat sour cream and ¼ Cup mayonnaise

2)      Thin – ¾ Cup low- or non-fat yogurt and ½ Cup mayonnaise

Freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

Place the anchovies, garlic, scallions, parsley, cilantro, dill, tarragon, sugar, salt, and vinegar in a food processor or blender and pulse until the mixture is finely chopped, stopping occasionally to scrape the sides down with a soft spatula.

Add the sour cream/yogurt and mayo and run the machine until the mixture is smooth. Correct seasoning and add black pepper. Scrape into a clean container and refrigerate for at least six hours. Keeps for a week. You can add additional vinegar by a tablespoon or two to thin, reducing the amount of sour cream and mayonnaise by half.

You may also like:

Mediterranean Party Table with Tahini Dressing

Chickpeas with Tahini Dressing and a Balsamic Vinaigrette

Tags: cooking, dip, food, Green Goddess dressing, healthy salad dressing, recipes, salad ideas, what is Green Goddess dressing