Salads, a staple in a health-conscious diet, have taken a remarkable turn in the culinary world. One such salad making waves on social media is the Tiktok Green Goddess Salad. This vegan delight, characterized by its unique green goddess dressing, is something you’d surely want to add to your diet.
Discovering the Green Goddess Salad
The Green Goddess Salad has been trending on Tiktok, catching the attention of many health enthusiasts. Its vibrant color and delightful taste make it a real stand-out. This salad is essentially any salad tossed with green goddess dressing.
This dressing was originally crafted in San Francisco, with ingredients like anchovies, green onions, parsley, tarragon, mayo, sour cream, and chives. However, the version we’re discussing today is a vegan adaptation and varies from the classic. It’s a delightful blend of chives, green onions, nutritional yeast, and other ingredients, creating a creamy, tangy dressing with a lovely green hue.
The Green Goddess Salad Dressing
The green goddess dressing is what sets this salad apart. This vegan-friendly version of the dressing takes inspiration from vegan pesto. It’s packed with herbs and carries a slight tanginess, which is perfectly balanced by the cheesiness from the nutritional yeast.
The dressing components include:
- Lemons
- Olive oil
- Rice vinegar
- Shallot
- Garlic
- Basil
- Spinach
- Nutritional yeast
- Walnuts
- Salt
These ingredients are blended together to create a smooth and creamy dressing that’s not just tasty, but also healthy.
Assembling the Green Goddess Salad
The salad primarily consists of finely diced cabbage, cucumbers, green onions, and chives. The finely chopped vegetables, akin to coleslaw, are tossed together with the green goddess dressing. The dressing is a vegan pesto variant, featuring walnuts and nutritional yeast instead of traditional pine nuts and parmesan.
Steps to Prepare Green Goddess Dressing
The dressing is simple to make. Place all the ingredients into a blender, starting with the liquid ones, and then blend until you achieve a smooth and creamy consistency.
Storing Your Salad
You can store the salad in the refrigerator for 2-3 days, either dressed or undressed. If you’re preparing it ahead, it’s recommended to dress it beforehand. The acid in the dressing keeps it fresh, and since cabbage is a hearty vegetable, it’ll still taste great after a few days.
Noteworthy Ingredient: Nutritional Yeast
Nutritional yeast, a key ingredient in this salad, is a cheesy, nutty, and flavorful vegan substitute for cheese. It’s a flaky, golden powder made from a specific species of yeast grown for food. It’s rich in protein, B vitamins, and antioxidants, making it an excellent addition to vegan diets.
Addressing Common Queries
If you’re planning to make this salad, here are answers to some common questions you might have:
- Can I make this in advance? Yes, you can make this salad in advance. It can stay fresh in the refrigerator for 2-3 days.
- I don’t like cabbage. What can I use instead? If you’re not a fan of cabbage, you can use shredded kale or chopped lettuce.
- How long will the dressing keep in the fridge? The dressing can last up to 3 days in the refrigerator.
- Does this salad taste good the day after? Yes, this salad tastes even better the next day as the cabbage soaks up the dressing.
- What other nuts can I use instead of walnuts? If you’re allergic to walnuts or simply don’t like them, you can use pecans, almonds, hazelnuts, macadamia nuts, cashews, pine nuts, pistachios, or even sunflower seeds.
- Can I use another kind of vinegar? If you don’t have rice vinegar, you can substitute it with white wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar.
Variations to Try
The Green Goddess Salad is highly customizable. Here are a few variations you can try:
- Add crispy bacon for protein and crunch.
- Incorporate diced chicken breast or crumbled firm tofu for lean protein.
- Sprinkle toasted sesame seeds for a nutty finish.
- For a spicy version, add 2-3 diced jalapeños and 1 diced green pepper.
- For a guacamole twist, add 3 diced avocados and the juice of one lime.
- For a super green variant, swap the cabbage for shredded brussels sprouts, add chopped spinach, and shredded kale.
- For a taco twist, swap the cabbage for lettuce and add crumbled cojita cheese and diced onion.
How to Make the Tiktok Green Goddess Salad
Here’s a step-by-step guide to creating this nutritious salad.
Ingredients
For the Salad:
- 1 small cabbage, finely diced
- 3-4 small Persian cucumbers, finely diced
- 1 bunch green onions, sliced
- 1/4 cup chives, finely sliced
For the Green Goddess Dressing:
- Juice of 2 lemons
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 2 tbsp rice vinegar
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 small shallot
- 1 cup fresh basil
- 1 cup spinach
- 1/3 cup nutritional yeast
- 1/4 cup walnuts
- 1 tsp salt
Instructions
- Finely dice all the vegetables and toss them in a large bowl.
- In a blender, add the dressing ingredients, starting with the liquid ones. Blend until smooth.
- Mix the dressing with the diced vegetables. Enjoy the salad on its own, with tacos, as a side dish, or scoop it up with tortilla chips!
This salad serves four, and each serving contains 285 calories.
The Tiktok Green Goddess Salad is a healthy, delicious, and easy-to-make dish that you can customize according to your preferences. It’s no wonder it’s creating a buzz on TikTok. Give it a try, and you might find yourself reaching for this recipe more often than you’d expect!