Perfect Green Goddess dressing.

File this under: Decades-old food trends that have come back around again. (Along with homemade butter, canning and charcuterie.)

I remember Green Goddess dressing from my childhood [mind you, at that age I positively hated salad of all kinds]. Green Goddess dressing had kind of a groovy, late ’70s sort of vibe to it: break out the mod Danish-designed salad bowl.

According to American Food Roots, the dressing originated in 1923 at San Francisco’s Palace hotel. The original recipe had a mayonnaise-sour cream base, tons of green herbs and the kick of anchovy. I recently spotted a recipe for Green Goddess in Bon Appétit‘s June issue. And among the recipes I gathered from Cincinnati chefs for “The Findlay Market Cookbook” was Julie Francis’s winter salad with Green Goddess dressing.

The Goddess—she’s back.

My version is sort of stripped-down, so the herbs really come to the fore. I used non-fat Greek yogurt as the primary base, with a couple of tablespoons of mayo for richness. I skipped the anchovy because I wanted the tarragon and chives to really shine. You can either blend a small garlic clove into the dressing, or skip that and rub a smashed clove thoroughly on your salad bowl to give that pungent hit of super-fresh garlic.

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low-fat Green Goddess dressing recipe

3/4 cup Greek yogurt

2 Tbsp. mayonnaise

1 small clove garlic
pinch of salt

1 Tbsp. lemon juice

1 Tbsp. white wine vinegar

1/4 cup minced chives

1/4 cup chopped parsley
2 Tbsp. chopped tarragon

lots of pepper

In a blender (or in a tall jar using an immersion blender), whirl together the Greek yogurt and mayo. Use the blade of a knife to smash the garlic clove on a cutting board, sprinkle it generously with kosher salt, and mash it into a paste. Add the garlic-salt paste, the lemon juice, vinegar, herbs and pepper to the yogurt. Whirl to combine well and create a smooth, evenly green mixture. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

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