Homemade Green Goddess Dressing

It's always more fun to DIY. Every week, we'll spare you a trip to the grocery store and show you how to make small batches of great foods at home.

Today: Food52's Managing Editor Brette Warshaw gives us a greener, brighter, and even-more-attractive Green Goddess. 

How could you not want to eat something called Green Goddess? 

Green Goddess, like Super Fudge Chunk ice cream or a Tres Leches doughnut, is one of those things that you can't not, by terms of name alone, be attracted to. It's the kind of thing that when your friends order "a side of green goddess" with their fries at your local diner -- an at least once-a-week occurrance during my high school days -- you can't help but purring to the waitress, "Oooooh yeah, me too."

But unlike Super Fudge Chunk or that Tres Leches doughnut, the typical Green Goddess doesn't leave you in a state of utter relaxation, of joy, of glazed-eyed bliss. Instead, its garlickyness and gloopiness make it, after a few dunks of a french fry (or carrot stick), something you want as far away from you as possible.

This is a version that you'll want to cozy up to: a version to drizzle on a a salad or eat with chopped vegetables, to dollop on eggs or, yes, dunk fries into. Made greener and brighter with avocado, basil, tarragon, and parsley, it's something that, in its own way, is just as good as a fudge-ripple-y ice cream or creamy, drippy doughnut.

It's the kind of Green Goddess you actually want to eat.

Green Goddess Dressing

Adapted from Bon Appétit

Makes about 2 cups

1/2 ripe medium avocado (about 7 ounces)
3 tablespoons white wine vinegar
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
2 oil-packed anchovies, very finely chopped
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon fresh lime juice
1/4 teaspoon sugar
3/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
2 tablespoons chopped fresh tarragon
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
1 small shallot, finely chopped (about 1 tablespoon)
Salt and pepper

Put your avocado, vinegar, garlic clove, anchovies, lemon juice, lime juice, and sugar in a blender. Whizz until puréed. 

While the motor is running, pour in your olive oil in a steady stream. 

When all of the oil is incorporated, pour the mixture into a mixing bowl. Whisk in your cream; it's okay if it looks a bit stripe-y.

Stir in your chopped basil, parsley, tarragon, and shallot.

Season with salt and pepper. Taste it -- it's good!

Cover your mixture and put it in the fridge for at least 3 hours. Let stand at room temperature for 10 to 20 minutes before serving. It will keep for 3 days.

Enjoy at your leisure. Feel like a goddess. 

See the full recipe (and save and print it) here.

Photos by James Ransom