Currently cooking from Cook This Now by Melissa Clark

I’ve never tasted green goddess dressing. I actually hadn’t even heard of it until just recently, so I didn’t know what to expect when I made this recipe. Maybe something like ranch dressing, except greener?

What I got was an intensely green, very vegetal liquid. Interestingly enough, both of Clark’s books has a recipe for green goddess dressing. The recipe in Appetite is more of a dip, calling for sour cream and mayonnaise. The recipe in Cook This Now uses buttermilk and makes a thin, pourable dressing. Both recipes call for lots of herbs such as basil, parsley and cilantro, some sort of onion (green onions or chives) lemon juice, garlic and anchovy fillets. Everything gets ground up in a food processor until smooth.

I went with the thinner, dressing-like recipe in Cook This Now simply because I had buttermilk that I needed to use. I made it to serve over the roasted eggplant dish from Appetite. I also used it as a dressing for a grated carrot salad and as a topping for rice. It’s a good, all-purpose dressing with a bit of a kick (from what, I’m not sure, but it makes my mouth burn just a bit).