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Green Goddess Salad Dressing (Dairy-Free, Egg-Free, Corn-Free, Nut-Free and Soy-Free)

Do you remember Green Goddess Salad Dressing?  I sure do, I used to love that bottled green stuff from Seven Seas when I was a kid.  My mom used to make a delicious taco salad with it and I even used it to top my baked potato in lieu of sour cream.  And it’s a great dipper for raw veggies!

Somewhere along the line, the dressing began to disappear from grocery store shelves and over time, I simply forgot about it.  Then a few months ago, when I began recreating all of my favorite salad dressings to be free of: dairy, egg, corn, soy, refined sugar, artificial colors, preservatives, and gluten cross-contamination, my mom’s Green Goddess taco salad came flooding back in my memory as I tried to figure out a way to enjoy Mexican inspired foods again without the use of corn and dairy (talk about feeling like a displaced New Mexican!).

Before I could make the taco salad though, I needed Green Goddess dressing.

According to Wikipedia, Green goddess is a salad dressing, typically containing mayonnaise, sour cream, chervil, chives, anchovy, tarragon, lemon juice, and pepper and is named for it’s green tint.

I found the following ingredient list for Kraft’s Green Goddess Dressing on Amazon:

Soybean Oil, Water, Vinegar, Sugar, Dried Sour Cream (Cream, Cultured Skim Milk, Culture), Salt, Contains less than 2% of Garlic, Xanthan Gum, Natural Flavor, Onion Juice, Spice, Polysorbate 60, Sorbic Acid and Calcium Disodium Edta As Preservatives, Mustard Flour, Yellow 5, Blue 1

The more I look at the ingredient list, the more nauseous I become.  Where are the herbs?  And the anchovies?  I feel like my entire pre-celiac and food allergic gastronomic life was nothing more than a synthetic illusion!

Certainly Green Goddess dressing wasn’t invented by a food manufacturer (can you tell I grew up on processed foods?), so I did a little digging and came across this website that shares the history of Green Goddess as well as a simple recipe that was perfect for tweaking to be allergen-friendly.

If you have a fish allergy or are a vegetarian (and thus cannot use anchovies), I found a thread on Chowhound offering several ideas for vegetarian substitutes.  The suggestion to use capers sounds like a great alternative to me.

Another very important note: Heinz Tarragon Vinegar is NOT GLUTEN-FREE!  It contains malt vinegar which is made from barley and is not distilled.  Luckily, it is very easy to make your own tarragon vinegar and I found a great recipe here.

Green Goddess Salad Dressing (Dairy-Free, Egg-Free, Corn-Free, Nut-Free and Soy-Free)

Rating: 51

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Whisk all ingredients together in a medium bowl (or use a blender, see notes).
  2. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.

Notes

To achieve a naturally beautiful green hue to the dressing, use fresh herbs and make the dressing in a blender. The blender will pulverize the fresh herbs, releasing the chlorophyll and turning the dressing green.

The original dressing recipe turned out much thicker than what I prefer for a salad dressing. To thin the dressing, add enough dairy-free buttermilk until you reach the desired consistency.

I've not tried making this dressing with anything other than anchovies, but if you try using capers or another substitute, I would recommend starting with 1 tsp. and taste as you go until you reach the desired taste.

If you don't have a fish allergy and are not vegetarian but are anchovy adverse, I definitely recommend giving anchovies a try. While I was never one to put them on my pizza, a little anchovy paste doesn't have a fishy taste to me, it's just salty. Plus, anchovies are a good source of omega-3 fatty acids and because they are a small fish with a short life span, they are less likely to accumulate dangerous levels of mercury (to learn more, click here).

https://www.adventuresofaglutenfreemom.com/2011/09/green-goddess-salad-dressing-dairy-free-egg-free-corn-free-nut-free-and-soy-free/

This dressing also makes a lovely variation to the standard mayo and mustard based potato salad.  I’ve also been adding a dollop or two in the “eventually instant mashed potatoes” that I like to keep on hand for a quick and easy weeknight side dish.  And of course, the corn-free, dairy-free Green Goddess Taco Salad, which I will share in a future post.

Have you ever had Green Goddess dressing before?  If so, I’d love to know if you any special recipes or memories of it! 😀

Comments

  1. Oh, Holy Cr@P, am I first? No way! Let's see if I am really first when this goes up. Um, um, um…What do I say?

    Oh, yeah! I have never heard of this stuff, although I should have, also being a product of 70s/80s processed revolution. While the Kraft version sounds awful (although I am sure it tasted good.) I really like the sound of your version. I think I am going to have to make it sometime to take to Big Sur (FIL'S place with all of the people). I am sure it will be a big hit. Love you recipes, my dear friend. Keep 'em coming.

    xoxo,

    Tia

    • Oh Tia, this dressing is so good! I plan incorporating it into my Halloween party food repertoire too, the natural green color is just begging to be called something like swamp scum or witches' brew, LOL!

      xoxo,
      Heidi

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