This green goddess dressing recipe uses two cups of fresh herbs! It’s fantastic for salads, roasted vegetables, fish, meats, and also makes a great veggie dip.
Green goddess dressing is a delicious creamy dressing made with lots of fresh green herbs. Make it once, and you’ll be wanting a jar of it in your fridge from here on out.
It’s wonderful tossed with greens, spooned over roasted vegetables, served as a sauce for meats and seafood, or set out as a dip with fresh vegetables. When I have lots of fresh herbs on hand, I jump at the chance to make this creamy green goddess dressing!
Key Ingredients
- Fresh Herbs: I use roughly 2 cups of fresh herbs, almost half of which is parsley. We love the combo of parsley, basil, chives, and a smaller amount of tarragon (it’s stronger!), but feel free to add cilantro, mint, dill, or scallions, too.
- Mayonnaise and Sour Cream: Mayonnaise forms the base of our dressing, but I mix in some sour cream to lighten it up a bit (I do the same when making ranch). If you don’t have sour cream, Greek yogurt or buttermilk work well. For a vegan dressing, try my homemade vegan mayo, cashew cream, or this homemade tahini, and skip the sour cream.
- Anchovies: Anchovies add a salty kick that salt alone can’t match! If you don’t eat fish, substitute with chopped capers.
- Lemon and Vinegar: Fresh lemon juice adds brightness, and a splash of rice wine vinegar really makes this herb dressing pop (optional, but yummy!).
Find the full recipe with measurements below.
How to Make Green Goddess Dressing
Tip 1: Use a food processor or blender. I take a moment to get out my food processor for this recipe since it does such a great job of blending all those fresh herbs. If you don’t have a blender, you can always finely mince the herbs and anchovies, then mix them into the mayo and sour cream.
Tip 2: Taste, and season well. Before serving your dressing, give it a taste. If it isn’t popping for you, it probably needs more salt and lemon juice. If it’s too thick, thin it with a bit of water, milk, or buttermilk.
Ways to Use This Dressing
Green goddess dressing is incredibly versatile. While we usually use it as a salad dressing, it almost always ends up as a sauce for whatever we’re cooking the rest of the week. Here are some of our favorite ways to use it:
- Toss with salad greens.
- Use as the dressing for potato salad. You can even swap the olive oil dressing in this herb potato salad for green goddess.
- Serve as a dip with fresh vegetables like cucumbers, carrots, or snap peas.
- Spoon over roasted or grilled meats, fish, or chicken. It’s amazing with grilled chicken and this lemon dill baked salmon.
- Drizzle over roasted vegetables like roasted broccoli, roasted potatoes, or roasted cauliflower.
- Add to grain or rice bowls. It’s especially good spooned over this buffalo chicken bowl.
More Salad Dressing Recipes
- Cilantro Lime Dressing
- Creamy Ranch Dressing
- Herb Italian Dressing
- Vegan Tahini Dressing
- Honey Mustard Salad Dressing
Green Goddess Dressing
- PREP
- TOTAL
Green goddess dressing is a delicious creamy dressing made with lots of fresh green herbs. It’s wonderful tossed into salads, spooned over roasted veggies, fish, or meats and even doubled as a vegetable dip.
*You can make this recipe vegan. See our tips section and substitutions for guidance.
Watch Us Make the Recipe
You Will Need
½ cup mayonnaise, see our homemade mayonnaise
⅓ cup sour cream, Greek yogurt, or well-shaken buttermilk
2 to 3 anchovy fillets or substitute 1 tablespoon capers
¾ cup packed fresh parsley leaves and tender stems
½ cup packed fresh basil leaves
2 tablespoons fresh tarragon leaves or 2 teaspoons dried tarragon
¼ cup chopped chives cut into 1-inch pieces or substitute scallions
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar, optional, adds extra tanginess
¼ to ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
½ teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
Directions
1Add mayonnaise, sour cream, 2 anchovy fillets, parsley, basil, tarragon, chives, lemon juice, vinegar, salt, and pepper to the bowl of a food processor or blender. Process, stopping and scraping down the sides a few times until the dressing is well blended.
2Taste the dressing. If it needs a bit more pop, add the last anchovy and an extra squeeze of lemon juice. If the dressing is too thick, thin it out with a little water, milk or buttermilk.
Adam and Joanne's Tips
- Vegan green goddess dressing: Use 1 ⅓ cups vegan mayonnaise or cashew cream instead of the regular mayonnaise and sour cream, and then use 1 tablespoon of capers instead of the anchovy fillets. You may need to play around with a little more lemon juice or herbs to get the flavors just right.
- Avocado variation: Avocado adds a creamy element to the dressing. Add the flesh from one medium avocado.
- To make this by hand: Finely chop all the herbs and anchovies, then stir into the rest of the ingredients.
- The nutrition facts provided below are estimates.
This dressing is INSANE-ly delicious! I find that dried tarragon takes awhile to soften in food before it’s pleasant to eat, so I added it to the mayo the night before I made the dressing, and it mixed beautifully. I even decided to keep 1/2 cup of mayo mixed with 2 tsp of dried tarragon in the fridge so I can make this dressing any time I want to!
Great tip for the dried tarragon, Monique! I’ll try that next time.