Name: Skinny Green Goddess Dressing
Prep time: 5 min
Total time: 5 min
Ingredients: 1 cup non fat plain Greek yogurt (Chobani brand recommended); 1 medium garlic clove (minced); 1 tablespoon tarragon vinegar; 1 tablespoon lemon juice; 1 ½ teaspoons anchovy paste; 1/3 cup Italian parsley (stems can be included); ¼ cup green onions (white and green portions – approximately 2 medium); ½ teaspoon kosher salt; Grind of black pepper

This Green Goddess dressing recipe is a slimmed down version of the salad dressing classic - only 21 calories a serving! Fast (5 minutes) and easy to make, this delicious creamy dressing is a great addition to your favorite salad.

Green Goddess salad dressing is tangy and full of fresh herb, garlic and green onion flavor. It's a simple recipe for homemade salad dressing that will make you love salad again. Like our skinny Blue Cheese dressing, this is one of those creamy dressings that really makes salad exciting.

There is no mayonnaise and no oil in this delicious dressing!

This recipe is an update from one in my great grandmother's recipe box which is an accurate version of the original salad dressing. Our version maintains the defining flavors but takes the calories way down!

It's a flavorful dressing to use on any green salad (from light flavored to robust lettuces to kale salad). It can do double duty as a dip with fresh vegetables too.

If you are following WW, don't miss the link for personal points in the recipe card below! We think you'll be over the moon at the calorie savings.

Jump to:

What is green goddess dressing?
What makes this skinny?
Recipe Ingredient Notes
How to make Green Goddess dressing
Variation
How to Store
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Recipe

What is green goddess dressing?

This is an old school salad dressing originally developed in the 1920's at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco California. The hotel's chef wanted to create a special dish to honor actor George Arliss who was starring in the hit play 'The Green Goddess'. The dressing is a supposed spin on 'sauce au vert' (green sauce) created by French King Louis XIII's chef.

The salad dressing is tangy with a light garlic and parsley flavor. It's a fresh dressing that's great on salads or for dipping vegetables.

This is a salad dressing that was popular in the 1970's and 1980's but it's difficult to find now. I've seen multiple recipes claiming to be Green Goddess dressing full of loads of leafy herbs, which I'm sure taste great but they don't have two of the key defining flavor ingredients: anchovy paste (or anchovies) and tarragon vinegar.

Ours has both and it makes all the difference. And the original versions of Green Goddess dressing only used a small handful of parsley along with green onions which gave it the fresh green vibrant color.

What makes this skinny?

The original Green Goddess dressing is made with mayonnaise, sour cream or in the case of my great grandmother's recipe also heavy cream. Our version uses non-fat plain Greek yogurt. It provides the substance and some tang without the calories and works perfectly in a slimmed down version, both for texture and flavor.

The original dressing has 116 calories per 2 tablespoons serving and 12 grams of fat; ours has 21 calories per 2 ¼ tablespoons and 1 gram of fat. Woo hoo!

Recipe Ingredient Notes

green goddess dressing labelled ingredients

Non-fat plain Greek yogurt. We use and recommend Chobani brand for this. It has a thick consistency and just the right amount of tang. It's what we use in all our recipes calling for plain non-fat Greek yogurt.

Tarragon vinegar. This is a specific flavored vinegar that is available in most grocery stores. If you can't find it substitute white wine vinegar and add some fresh tarragon leaves when blending the dressing.

Garlic clove. Even though it will be blended start with a minced garlic clove which will help distribute it more evenly in the dressing.

Anchovy paste. This is sold in tubes in most regular grocery stores. As the name suggests it's a paste made from anchovy fillets. It's low calorie and with the distinct flavor you find in Caesar salad dressing. It's very easy to use; squeeze out the amount needed (1 ½ teaspoons in this case) and add it!

How to make Green Goddess dressing

This homemade dressing really only takes one step: blending.

Add all the ingredients into the pitcher of a blender jar of a high-speed blender: non-fat plain Greek yogurt, Italian parsley, green onion (scallions), anchovy paste, garlic, tarragon vinegar, lemon juice, salt and black pepper.

green goddess dressing ingredients in blender

Blend to puree until smooth.

This can also be made in the bowl of a food processor. Since it's a smaller batch creamy salad dressing we found using a blender easier.

green goddess dressing ingredients blended

Chill the dressing before using to let the flavors integrate. It will thicken slightly but will be a pourable creamy texture versus a thick dressing .

Variation

You can use the base recipe to change up the dressing. Swap in different herbs (fresh basil, fresh dill, cilantro, chives) or make a combination of leftover parsley and other fresh herbs.