Green Goddess Dressing

Last year when I hosted my family's Easter dinner, I made a Green Goddess dressing for one of my salads. It was great. Even I really enjoyed it, and that's saying something because, unfortunately, I'm not a big fan of salads.  I wish I was but I view salad as nothing more than a vehicle for dressing.  Unless, of course, the salad is studded with goodies like toasted almonds, bacon bits, cheese and croutons.  Now that's a salad I can get excited about but it's not exactly healthy. 

I don't remember what magazine I found last year's Green Goddess dressing in (geez, I wish I was blogging back then) and so, when I decided to make it again, I had to settle for a recipe I found on Epicurious.  It was not the same, I knew this because the list of ingredients was much shorter than I recalled and the end result was good, but not as good as last year's. I would make this one again, I may just make a few adjustments, unless of course, I found the 'lost recipe'. 

For the salad, I really wanted a simple affair, fresh and crisp iceberg lettuce, radishes, carrots and, of course, yummy bacon bits...

and toasted almonds...

It's for Easter dinner, afterall, so flavor trumped health.  All the herbs in the dressing, of course, have to be fresh not dried.  Flat leaf parsley...

chives...

and tarragon...

When I ran the ingredients through my food processor, it wasn't very green.  It was more of a light yellow color with specks of green.  (This was not a problem with my 'lost recipe').  So I pulled out my neglected and under-used VitaMix blender, which I should have used in the first place and Voila!  A beautiful pale green creamy dressing in less than 5 seconds.  I will definitely be making better use of that piece of equipment in the future.  So, if you're interested in trying this close second, here's the recipe. 

Green Goddess Dressing

(Source: Epicurious - Gourmet Magazine)

1 cup mayo

3 anchovie fillets, minced

1 chopped scallion (I used a shallot)

2 T. chopped parsley

2 T. chopped chives

1 T. tarragon vinegar (I used white Balsamic)

1 t. chopped tarragon

salt and pepper to taste

Throw all the ingredients in your food processor and blend.  Add salt and pepper at the end to taste.