How green is my goddess?

The herb-iest dressing around (and a multitasker too!)

I have to say, I am a bit late to the green goddess party. I felt like the idea got a bit overplayed on the internet in the last few years (and that people were piling on because they liked the name), so I steered clear as I am wont to do with trends. But I made a spontaneous stab at this vintage recipe the other night and now I’m smitten. I can admit when I’m wrong!

I was inspired to make it during one of my creative fugue states while making dinner the other night. I had done some shopping at a few of my favorite stands in the NYC Greenmarket and hauled everything out to Long Island. Yes, we have plenty of produce here, but we are always about two weeks behind the season due to a slow spring caused by cooler temps from being near the ocean. Plus, I just can’t resist buying beautiful stuff when I see it.

On this particular day I bought:

• Sprouting cauliflower

• Yellow wax beans

• Sugar snap peas

• A long yellow cucumber (these are usually very sweet)

• Little gem lettuce (romaine or any crisp lettuce would be just as delicious in this salad)

I snagged a few other things too, but these were the items I decided would go together well as a big salad.

Now, I did grill a steak to go along with this meal, but the salad was really filling and satisfying on its own and would be great for lunch or even dinner if you're vegetarian, with the possible addition of some beans or tofu for protein. We also added a slice of homemade sourdough that we keep sliced in the freezer. I threw that on the grill briefly when the steak came off.

The salad I topped with my Green Goddess Dressing. You can recreate it by topping a bed of little gem lettuce with yellow cucumber and blanched sprouting cauliflower, yellow wax beans, and sugar snap peas. Or do your own thing! There’s no wrong way to enjoy this dressing.

For the salad, I blanched everything (except for the cucumber and lettuce) briefly before refreshing it in ice water. These may not be your typical “salad” ingredients but it was absolutely delicious, and we really filled up on it. For a nice presentation, I used my favorite bowl from Suzanne Lenzer and dressed the greens before arranging each vegetable in a separate pile for a salade composée. I then drizzled the vegetables with more dressing, cracked some black pepper over top, and embellished it with chive flowers from the garden, which not only look beautiful, but taste good too.

Use this formula for any fresh veggies you come across — blanching those that need cooking, and leaving others raw.

The dressing is similarly riffable; the precise amounts and ingredients are fungible and won't affect the outcome too much. This is the perfect thing to make if you have an herb garden, which, as you probably know, is something I highly recommend if you have the space. It’s such a pleasure to go outside and snip a bit of this and a bit of that to make a recipe like this one.

Herbs snipped straight out of my garden

If you don't have a garden, you can reduce the number of different herbs you use, maybe concentrating on flat-leaf parsley, and then nudging the flavor where you like it. Tarragon is especially lovely here, and chives are almost essential (if you don’t have them though, you can use a little bit of scallion). I also used mint, basil, and just a little cilantro. You could throw in some watercress or baby spinach to up the green factor if you want — you could even throw in some avocado for creaminess if you’re serving it all right away (otherwise, it may go brown before its time).  

Use at least one cup of mixed tender herbs for the recipe (more is good too!). Try:

Parsley
Basil
Cilantro
Mint
Chives
Dill
Tarragon
Chervil

The first time I made this dressing, I reached for labne (because it needed to be used up) and a little mayo for creaminess. You could also use sour cream or Greek yogurt, but keep in mind that the lower the fat content, the thinner the dressing will be. Feel free to play around with these flavors and ratios to suit your taste and diet.

I used a garlic scape instead of a garlic clove, because I love their milder flavor (especially when raw) and always have these in the veggie crisper this time of year because they keep forever.

I know you probably won’t be using this last sub, but I used a splash of yuzu juice, because I had a bottle in the fridge, and I was actually OUT OF LEMONS! If you ever have the opportunity to buy fresh yuzu juice, it’a a wonderful thing to keep in your arsenal. It’s citrus-y and unique. You can use it in cocktails, dressings, iced tea, desserts, and more. Anywhere lemon would go, try yuzu! I bought a fresh (i.e. refrigerated) one at Kalustyan’s but there are plenty of shelf-stable brands to order if you want to try a new flavor.

If using lemon, as most of you probably will be doing, I recommend starting with the lesser amount of juice specified in the recipe, since different dairy products have varying amounts of acidity, and it’s easier to balance the flavors this way.

One last note: in my opinion, the anchovies are absolutely essential here. It’s one of the best examples of how they can harmonize flavors while staying completely in the background. Trust me!

However you tweak it, this dressing can be used as a crudité dip, a sauce for grilled fish or chilled seafood, to make chicken salad, as a sandwich spread, mixed with canned tuna, etc. etc.

We even dipped our steak in it. It was the perfect complement to the sweet and crunchy veggies I used in the salad, and works well on any kind of salad, even adding a touch of luxury to a simple green salad.

I hope you’ll join me in exalting this goddess of summer.

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Green Goddess Dressing

Makes about 1 ½ cups