Rescue Strategy 3: Goldbush Green Dressing

October 22, 2020

Using herbs and greens to make a delicious multi-use green sauce

Sometimes called Salsa Verde or Pesto, this green dressing isn't quite Pesto as it's dairy free (no parmesan cheese), it's not a traditional Salsa Verde that usually uses tomatillos or green tomatoes, instead it's a delicious, put it on everything, Goldbush Green Dressing! Simple to make (whack it all in a blender and blend until your desired consistency) and uses up a lot of greens, especially if you've got some going south.

Here's the transcription of the video if you'd rather read it and the recipe is at the end:

Hi there! Today we are going to do Rescue Strategy number three which has turned into a bit of a cooking show!. Basically what I’m wanting to show you is how to make the Goldbush Green Dressing that will use up herbs and any greens you might have that are starting to wilt or you’re coming to the end of the week and want to use them up. This is a great way to use up a whole lot of herbs and greens in one go and makes an absolutely delicious dressing that’s great on eggs or salad. There are several variations of it as well, so you can tailor it to what you're serving.

So, what we need is herbs and greens. The way that I do the recipe is that I think about it in terms of 6 handfuls. That's usually split 2 and 2 and 2. So it might be two handfuls of parsley two handfuls of coriander and two handfuls of basil and now we're in winter and we don't have the basil, we might use two handfuls of coriander, two handfuls of parsley and two handfuls of mint. If you are serving the dressing with lamb, you could have four handfuls of mint and two handfuls of parsley and have a really minty dressing great with a roast lamb or in your lamb salad the next day, or spread on a sandwich, it’s really flexible! You could use four handfuls of herbs and then two handfuls of dandelion leaves or sorrel leaves or rocket, or any other greens that you need to use up. Or if you want to add in those bitter herbs which are really good for your health, but maybe you don’t enjoy eating them so much by themselves or in a salad, hide them in something like this Goldbush Green Dressing.

Today, what I’m going to do first is put the heavy, harder ingredients in first, so they get chopped up really well. I have a thermomix, but if you have a kitchen whizz or a blender or nutribullet they’ll also work. First ingredient today is cashews, I’ve just got cashew pieces because they’re cheaper, that’s 50g, you can use almonds or pinenuts or sunflower seeds if you’re nut-free. Because we’re using lots of other strong flavours, you don’t really notice the nuts as much from a flavour perspective but they add a creaminess and a bit of a chunk to it too. Next I’m going to add some garlic, this is frozen chopped garlic that I have in my freezer, so that makes that super easy. Now what I’ve got here is capers, this is one of the special ingredients to really giving it a great flavour, I’ve just bought a 65g jar, you want about 50g in the recipe, I’ve drained this and rinsed it well since it’s in brine so we want to remove that saltiness. The next special ingredient, which I promise won’t make it taste fishy, you don’t notice it as it’s own thing, but it adds a depth of flavour, is anchovies, I buy them in a little jar so I can put the lid back on, but you want 3-4 anchovies, if you don’t have these you can leave them out. You can make this without the capers as well, it’s still yum but they do add a lot to the flavour.

Next we have salt and pepper, about a teaspoon of salt and ½ tsp pepper. Then I’m going to put my herbs in, a bunch of coriander we’ll call 2 handfuls, remove the leaves from hard stalks but otherwise they can go in, if you were getting one of our bunches of parsley you might split that in two, remove the large stalks (to be used in a soup or stock), and that would be 2 handfuls, I have some mint here, thought it was peppermint but was given a plant recently that looks very different from this, it may be spearmint? Strip the leaves of the stalk for this, the sorrel adds a fresh apple flavour. That’s about full in my thermomix! Then what you want is a cup and a half, or a cup and a quarter (start with one and a quarter cup then you can add more later if you want it runnier). Pour it on top, the beauty of this recipe is being able to just put it all in together. Fast Forward the blending . . .
So this is pretty much perfect looking, so now I’m going to taste it to just see . . . and the missing ingredient is lemon juice, it needs at least half a lemon squeezed in there, and this is going to need some more salt. So you can just adjust yours depending how you like. That thickness I like for spreading and we’ll just put it on our eggs like that, and then just tweak that to taste.
There we go, Strategy Number Three, Using a whole heap of greens to make a jarful of Goldbush Green Dressing. Let me know what you think!

Goldbush Green Dressing