Green Goddess dressing

The Green Goddess dressing was not named for its pretty green colour; instead, it was named after a play by the same name. During the mid-1920s, actor George Arliss was starring in a play called The Green Goddess. While the play was in San Francisco, Arliss stayed at The Palace Hotel, where the chef created this dressing in his honour. Richard Harned tells a slightly different story in his book The Palace Hotel. It was still George Arliss in town for his play and staying at The Palace Hotel, but supposedly, Arliss did not like any of the salad dressing choices and challenged chef Philip Roemer to make a better dressing. The chef then created this herb-filled concoction.

This is a herby dressing that sparkles with flavour. Two essential flavour components, tarragon and parsley, are critical for this dressing. I have had this dressing numerous times in India, and the chefs substitute cilantro for parsley, mainly because of availability and cost, and leave out tarragon, as it is not a common herb in the country. The dressing is bland and very different, and does no justice to the salad. Both these ingredients are now commonly available. In addition. The recipe asks fr sour cream, adding light tartness to the important dressing. Instead of sour cream, you can substitute sour yoghurt or yoghurt and a touch of lime juice.

This is an early tome of over 1400 vegetarian recipes from Deborah Madison. This volume was written to become the bible of vegetarian cooking. After many years as a teacher and writer, she realised there was no comprehensive primer for vegetarian cooking, no single book that taught vegetarians basic cooking techniques, combining ingredients, and presenting vegetarian dishes with style. This was one of my first cookbooks, and it taught me that in today's meat-centric diet, vegetables can also be excellent and are never a second fiddle. This is the one book every vegetarian should always have open in their kitchen.

For more recipes from this cookbook, click here.

Ingredients:

Makes 1 cup.

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1/2 cup sour cream

1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

1/2 cup parsley

3 tablespoons chives or 2 scallions

1/2 teaspoon dried tarragon

1 garlic clove

Salt, to taste

Add all the ingredients to a small blender and purée to a smooth dressing. If you desire, you can pass the dressing through a fine-mesh sieve to remove and stringy bits.

Store in the fridge for 2-3 days.