Spring

Green Goddess Dressing Revisited

October  4, 2022
0
0 Ratings
  • Makes About 1 cup
Author Notes

Back when Green Goddess Dressing was all the rage, my mother loved it. I was at the age where I hated anything my parents said was wonderful just on general principles. And that was before I knew it included anchovies, which I also hated. Though I’m not certain I knew what they were. I would eat anything over which I could pour Thousand Island Dressing.

And then, as happens, I grew up and began to also grow a palate. Just last week, a friend who manages the stunning produce department of my favorite natural foods store asked me if I could come up with a recipe using angelica, which she’d ordered in, but wasn’t selling. Angelica. I'd only known it as a noxious, gigantic nuisance in our northern California neighborhood, or its candied stems that we used to decorate cakes in culinary school. It tasted like sweet, green cocktail straws. But when she showed it to me, I saw thin, tender-ish stems and deep green leaves. It was lovely. It tastes a bit like celery leaves, only greener, if that helps.

I was already thinking salad dressing, when along came my new friend down the street with a bounty of unwanted white onion scapes. So I decided it was time to dust off an old treasure and give it a face-lift. My mother’s recipe in The American Family Cookbook called for mayo, sour cream, tarragon vinegar, lemon juice, fresh parsley, chopped onion, anchovy paste (of course), chives, capers, garlic, salt and pepper. But I wanted a cleaner, less complicated range of flavors, so I left out the chives, increased the lemon juice and omitted the vinegar and capers, and replaced the sour cream with crème fraîche, which also lightens the consistency a bit. I love it. I absolutely love it. I’ll take this over Thousand Island any day.

The dressing also makes a great condiment for cold sandwiches or paninis.
boulangere

What You'll Need
Ingredients
  • 1/2 cup mayonnaise
  • 1/4 cup onion (or garlic) scapes, packed
  • 1/4 cup angelica leaves (or celery leaves), lightly packed
  • 1 clove garlic, smashed and peeled
  • Zest and juice of 1/2 lemon
  • 2 to 4 teaspoons anchovy paste (my concession to the old darling, and I am not referring to my mother, please understand) – start on the low side, you can always add more
  • 1/2 cup crème fraîche or unflavored Greek yogurt
  • Sea or kosher salt and pepper to taste
Directions
  1. Place all ingredients except the crème fraîche or Greek yogurt and salt and pepper in the bowl of a food processor or into a blender. Purée until as smooth as possible. Crème fraîche and Greek yogurt have a more tender consistency, and tend to break down if handled too aggressively.
  2. Scrape out into a mixing bowl and stir in the crème fraîche or Greek yogurt. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
  3. Store in refrigerator.
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8 Reviews

Droplet April 15, 2013
Interesting! And angelica in goddess dressing makes you stop pondering over the etymology :)
 
boulangere April 15, 2013
Good point!
 
hardlikearmour April 25, 2012
Wow! This sounds fresh and delicious, and now I'm intrigued by angelica.
 
boulangere April 25, 2012
I was amazed, hla. I'm really looking forward to a fish sandwich tonight.
 
hardlikearmour April 15, 2013
I'm reading The Drunken Botanist by Amy Stewart, and one of the plants she covers is angelica. The edible variety has the coolest scientific name I've ever heard: Angelica archangelica.
 
boulangere April 15, 2013
Perfect!
 
wssmom April 25, 2012
LOVE!!!
 
boulangere April 25, 2012
;0))