baked oats green chile chicken enchiladas chow mein bakery-style butter cookies


copyright jennifer yu © 2004-2023 all rights reserved: no photos or content may be reproduced without prior written consent


the goddess giveth

Recipe: green goddess dressing

This was supposed to be a roundup of the places I dined at while in Virginia, but I needed to go with something simple. My body needed it, too. Heavy restaurant eating and not enough outdoor exercise make me feel blah and yuck and argg. I did finally get back to Colorado with nary a hitch if you ignore that it was 24 hours later. And while I do miss my parents, I’m also ecstatic to be back to my life of thin air, simple mountain living, Jeremy, and American West sensibilities.


enjoying tulips on pearl street in boulder while waiting for my bus back to nederland



So today you get salad, or rather, salad dressing. I always say a homemade salad dressing is ten times better than any store-bought dressing, because it’s true! And it is only slightly more work. My favorite default dressing is a squeeze of lemon juice, some good olive oil, salt, and pepper. Good stuff and super simple. Of course, we like to change things up around here with different kinds of dressings or salad ingredients (see the links below the recipe for some of my favorites). I thought it would be good to revisit an oldie, but goodie – something that graced every salad bar of my youth in the 70s and 80s – green goddess dressing.

tarragon, parsley, chives, plain greek yogurt, mayonnaise, black pepper, salt, lemon, white wine vinegar, anchovy paste

three green herbs

place the herbs and liquids in the blender

add the anchovy paste



There is flexibility in which herbs you choose to include in the dressing – basically whatever you like. And if you don’t want all of that mayo in the dressing, substitute a ripe avocado instead or go halfsies. The plain (full-fat) Greek yogurt is my swap for sour cream because sour cream bothers my stomach, but yogurt seems to be just fine for me. So choose your ingredients and the amounts based on what you like and then blender them all together. My Vitamix whips up some beautiful salad dressings.

in goes the mayonnaise

add the plain yogurt (or sour cream)

salt and pepper to taste

dress that salad



The herbs give the dressing that wonderful green color as well as that wonderful green taste. Creamy and herbal is what green goddess is all about. Just blitz it all together in a blender or food processor in under a minute and it will store nicely in the refrigerator for a week. Drizzle it over your salad. Spread it on a sandwich or a wrap. Use it as a dip for crudités or other similarly-purposed dipping nibbles. All good options.

more salad, please



Green Goddess Dressing
[print recipe]
slightly modified from Kalyn’s Kitchen

1/4 cup chives or green onions
1/4 cup fresh tarragon
1/4 cup fresh parsley (use flat-leaf parsley)
1 tbsp lemon juice, fresh
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
1 tsp anchovy paste
1 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt (original calls for sour cream)
salt and pepper to taste

Place the chives (or green onions), tarragon, and parsley in a food processor or blender and pulse until finely chopped. Add the lemon juice, vinegar, and anchovy paste and pulse until incorporated. Place the mayonnaise and yogurt in the blender or food processor bowl and blend until smooth. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Chill the dressing in the refrigerator. It keeps for up to 1 week. Makes 2 cups.


more goodness from the use real butter archives

asian chicken salad with ginger dressing house dressing coconut lime cilantro dressing japanese ginger dressing

8 nibbles at “the goddess giveth”

  1. Jasline (Foodie Baker) says:

    What a delicious and herby dressing! Adding this to my salad dressing collection, thanks for the recipe!

  2. Kristin says:

    Oh that looks delicious! Love the color. Homemade is definitely best, and I look forward to trying this one! Oh, hey! i can read the Captcha code! Just lucky, or did you change it?

  3. Jean says:

    Looks wonderful. Test comment to see if I can read the captcha.

  4. Thalia @ butter and brioche says:

    I love anything green goddess related and this dressing is no exception. It looks so nourishing, delicious and healthy – that I have to make it!

  5. KalynsKitchen says:

    Don’t you love Green Goddess dressing! To me this just screams spring!

  6. Ellen O'Donnell says:

    I have to try this. I love homemade dressings over store ones! Thank you for this, I can’t wait to make it!

  7. jenyu says:

    Jasline – you’re welcome!

    Kristin – I tried to change the captcha, but found there wasn’t an option to adjust the difficulty (there used to be, but Jeremy and I were both stumped that it has since disappeared in recent versions of the plug-in). One way around it is to hit the reload symbol next to the captcha code to get a new one if the current one is too difficult. Keep reloading until you find a good one. I’ll get around to updating it some day (I hope!).

    Jean – :) See my comment to Kristin above!

    Thalia – it’s so good and fresh!

    KalynsKitchen – thanks for the recipe, sweetie! I *love* it!

    Ellen – Hope you love it too!

  8. jill says:

    Oh this brings back memories. I always loved Green Goddess…and the stuff in the stores is yuk. Thank you!

leave a reply