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Green Goddess Salad Recipe

a bowl of salad with green goddess dressing

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5 from 6 reviews

If you like Ranch dressing, you'll love Green Goddess salad! Try this easy recipe next time you want to a healthy dressing. 

Green Goddess salad can be anything you want it to be! Pour the dressing over crisp salad greens, cabbage, chicken, salmon or pasta salad. It's also fantastic as a dip for raw veggies or drizzled over roasted vegetables. In this recipe, I combine Green Goddess dressing over a crisp and colorful rainbow chopped salad. It's healthy, gorgeous and very easy to make.

Ingredients

Units Scale

Green Goddess Salad Dressing

  • 1 cup full fat sour cream
  • 1 cup gently packed parsley leaves
  • 1 cup gently packed herbs of your choice (choose one or more from basil, dill, cilantro or tarragon)
  • 2 tablespoons snipped chives or scallions OR 1 small shallot, finely chopped
  • 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt

Rainbow Salad

For a chopped salad, chop the lettuce and vegetables into small pieces. You can also make a regular salad with larger chunks of vegetables. 

  • 1 romaine heart, quartered lengthwise then chopped into bite-sized pieces OR one 7 ounce bag of butter lettuce, chopped
  • 2 Persian cucumbers, sliced or finely chopped
  • 1 cup (5 ounces) cherry tomatoes, halved
  • 1 yellow bell pepper, diced
  • 2 carrots, thinly sliced or grated
  • 2 cups shredded or finely chopped purple cabbage
  • 1 to 2 cups canned chickpeas, drained and rinsed
  • 1/2 cup loosely packed mint leaves

Optional add-ins: Croutons, marinated artichokes hearts, black olives, bacon, chicken, hardboiled eggs, beets, sunflower seeds

Instructions

  • Combine all of the salad dressing ingredients in a food processor or blender: sour cream, herbs, chives/scallions, lemon juice and salt.
  • Process until the herbs are very finely chopped and the dressing turns a pretty light green color. This will take about 1 minute in a food processor and less time in a blender. 
  • Taste and add more salt if needed.  
  • Combine the rainbow salad ingredients in a large bowl. If serving immediately, pour the Green Goddess salad dressing over the top. You don't have to use all of the dressing, just use as much as you like. 
  • Toss really well, add salt and pepper if needed. If you have any fresh herbs remaining, snip some over the top of the salad. 

Notes

If possible, wait to dress the salad until right before eating so that the ingredients stay crisp and don't get soggy. 

The salad dressing, stored in a glass jar or Tupperware container, will stay fresh for 3 to 4 days. 

See the "Variations" section in the blog post above for ingredient suggestions that will add even more flavor to the dressing. 

A blender (I use a Nutribullet) will give the dressing a thinner, runnier consistency. It will also do a better job of chopping the herbs so the dressing will be smoother. A food processor will keep the consistency slightly thicker (more like a dip than a dressing). Also, it won't chop up the herbs as finely, so the dressing will have more texture.