Green Goddess Dressing

(pictured: baby spinach salad with sprouts, hempseeds and green goddess dressing)

As usual I made a salad for myself for lunch today. I wanted to make another salad dressing and choose this one from “The Professional Chef”. The original recipe is made with mayonnaise and additional oil making it very caloric and fatty. I used raw cashews in place of mayonnaise and oil and kept the remaining ingredients roughly the same. In the original recipe they used equal portions of raw spinach and watercress but I didn’t have watercress so I went with all spinach. Next time I will probably use arugula for a little sharpness. Here is what I did.

Green Goddess Dressing
Makes just under 1 ½ cups – approximately 22 tablespoons

Ingredients:

½ cup raw cashews
½ cup water
4 ounces raw spinach (approximately 3 handfuls)
1 tablespoon fresh parsley minced – optional
1 clove garlic, peeled
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
zest from 1/2 lemon, or to taste

Directions:

Combine everything in the blender and process until smooth. Taste for seasoning and adjust salt and pepper as desired. A little lemon juice would also be good in the recipe if you like acid.

Nutritional Information (per tablespoon):

Amount Per Serving
Calories - 14.03
Calories From Fat (60%) - 8.36

Total Fat - 1g
Saturated Fat - 0.17g
Cholesterol - 0mg
Sodium - 34.53mg
Potassium - 45.98mg
Total Carbohydrates - 0.98g
Fiber - 0.23g
Sugar - 0.16g
Protein - 0.59g

Comments:

This dressing has a very mild taste. Both the mustard and garlic flavor are very much background notes. I think this dressing is mild enough that children would eat it. I can’t say how this compares to the original since I never had it. I think this is a nice dressing variation. Next time I may a little lemon juice to enhance the flavor.