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This green goddess salad is anything but boring—it’s vibrant, packed with flavor, and totally lives up to the TikTok hype. Loaded with cabbage, kale, avocado, and sweet peppers, it’s tossed in the dreamiest green goddess dressing made with spinach, garlic, shallot, parmesan, and more. It’s the kind of salad you’ll actually crave for lunch or dinner. Nutritious, delicious, and drop-dead gorgeous—what more could you want in a salad?
You will love every element of this green goddess salad recipe from the colorful, crunchy salad mixture to the garlic, cashew, spinach, and parmesan dressing.
You might like sesame avocado chicken salad, Asian chicken salad or zoodle salad. Also check out roasted beet salad and crispy rice salad.
Why You’ll Love It
It’s nutritious: Kale, cabbage, cucumber, avocados – these are just some of the healthy elements in this TikTok viral green goddess salad. Every mouthful contains vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and other healthy compounds. This salad makes it easy to get your recommended daily values of nutrients.
An unusual salad: The dressing is so good in this recipe. It’s made with aromatic ingredients, including basil, shallot, garlic, cashews, parmesan, and more, for an unusual flavor which is just so good.
It’s so tasty: This creative and original recipe definitely doesn’t fall short in the flavor stakes. It’s really flavorful and combines various exciting ingredients to make one of the best salad recipes you’ve ever tried. Make it and see!
Green Goddess Salad Ingredients
A complete list of ingredients and amounts can be found in the recipe card below.
Vegetables: Kale, napa cabbage, red cabbage, onion, cucumber, and sweet peppers give this salad plenty of nutrients and make it tasty and colorful.
Avocado: Adds a creamy, nutty flavor.
Cashews: Adds an unusual taste to the green goddess dressing.
Baby spinach: Colors the spinach green (and ask Popeye about the nutrients!)
Parmesan: Cheese makes it even more delicious.
Garlic: Add more if you please.
Lemon juice: Fresh is best.
How to Make Creamy Green Goddess Salad
For more detailed instructions with weights and measurements, jump to the printable recipe card.
Prepare the dressing: Put the dressing ingredients in a food processor and blend until smooth, then keep it in an airtight container in the fridge until you’re ready to serve the salad.
Prepare the veggies: Finely chop the cabbage and kale (either by hand or using the food processor shredder disk).
Toss the dressing with the salad: Toss the prepared dressing with the chopped vegetables in a large mixing bowl.
Finish it off: Thinly slice the cucumber, onion, avocado, and sweet peppers and arrange these on top of the salad, then serve with some extra dressing on the side for those who want it.
Substitutions and Variations
Vegetables: Have you tried thinly shaved Brussels sprouts in a salad? They add flavor and crunch. If you have some leftovers from your roast dinner or your one pot chicken rice and Brussels sprouts dish, you might like to include them in this salad.
Add crunch: How about some crumbled tortilla chips on top?
Lemon juice: Swap the lemon juice for lime juice.
Creamier dressing: Add a little sour cream to the creamy dressing to make it creamier. Greek yogurt would work too.
Optional add-ins: Other ideas for the salad include nuts, green onions or red onion, pine nuts, garbanzo beans, snap peas, raisins or another kind of chopped dried fruit, iceberg lettuce or another crunchy kind, soft lettuce such as romaine lettuce or butter lettuce, sliced hard-boiled eggs, and ham. Try a little anchovy paste in the dressing or even some mustard seed.
Serving Suggestions
As a side dish: Pair this salad with pesto-crusted salmon, roasted chicken or a tomahawk steak.
For lunch: Enjoy your favorite bread basket recipe or some homemade soda bread with your salad.
How to Store Green Goddess Salad
Store: If you aren’t ready to serve the salad or plan to make it ahead, you can make the dressing, chop/shred the other ingredients, keep everything separate until you’re good to go, and then assemble it. That method yields the freshest result. Leftovers will keep for a day or so.
Freeze: This salad isn’t suitable for freezing.
Top Tips
Use fresh ingredients: Inspect the ingredients and choose the best and freshest salad vegetables you can find at the grocery store.
Don’t overdo the dressing: Start by adding a small amount of dressing to the salad, and add more as needed. The dressing has vibrant flavors and a little goes a long way.
Make it ahead: If you’re planning on serving the salad at a party or gathering, prepare the ingredients ahead of time and refrigerate them separately until you’re ready to serve. This will keep the salad fresh and crisp.
Green Goddess Salad FAQs
The original green goddess salad was heavy on mayonnaise and was created at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco, California, a century ago. As the story goes, an actor, George Arliss, performed in the 1920s in a local play named “The Green Goddess.” Head chef Philip Roemer created the special green dressing, which was well received and immediately became popular! The original salad ingredients included artichokes and lashings of mayonnaise. The hotel is still there today, but these days capers, chives, tarragon, vinaigrette, plenty of spinach for the green color, and also pasteurized eggs feature in their dressing.
You can use plenty of vegan-friendly ingredients in salad recipes, such as vegan pesto and even vegan “cheese.” If you really want to make this Tik Tok viral green goddess salad, you can make a dressing with avocados, garlic, extra virgin olive oil, fresh herbs, lemon juice, and apple cider vinegar. Or you could use your favourite vegan dressing instead of the one in the recipe.
TikTok Green Goddess Salad Recipe
Green Goddess Salad
Equipment
- Blender or Food Processor
Ingredients
- 1 Cup kale, rainbow, chopped
- 2 Cups napa cabbage, chopped
- 1 Cup red cabbage, chopped
- 1 red onion, thinly sliced
- 2 cucumbers, sliced
- 5 sweet peppers, sliced
- 1 avocado, sliced
For the Dressing:
- 2 Cups baby spinach
- ½ Cup basil leaves
- 1 shallot, small
- 3 Cloves garlic
- 1 Tablespoon cashews
- ⅓ Cup parmesan, grated
- 1 Teaspoon black pepper, coarse
- ½ Teaspoon salt
- ⅓ Cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 Tablespoon rice wine vinegar
- ½ lemon, juiced, about 1 Tablespoon
Instructions
Make the Dressing:
- Add the spinach, basil, shallot, garlic, cashews, parmesan, salt, pepper, olive oil, rice wine vinegar, and lemon juice to a food processor or blender.
- Blend until pureed. Pour into a sealable container and refrigerate until ready to use.
Assemble the Salad:
- Finely chop the kale, napa cabbage, and red cabbage and add to a large salad bowl.
- Pour dressing over the salad and toss to coat.
- Thinly slice the red onion, cucumber, sweet peppers, and avocado. Top the salad with these thinly sliced vegetables.
- Serve in individual bowls.
Notes
Don’t overdo the dressing: Start by adding a small amount of dressing to the salad, and add more as needed. The dressing has vibrant flavors and a little goes a long way.
Make it ahead: If you’re planning on serving the salad at a party or gathering, prepare the ingredients ahead of time and refrigerate them separately until you’re ready to serve. This will keep the salad fresh and crisp.
Nutrition
This viral TikTok green goddess salad is quick and easy to make, and the flavors it boasts are simply heavenly. You will feel like a goddess (or a god) enjoying it. Every mouthful is crunchy and delicious, and the green goddess salad dressing is too good to describe – you’ll need to try it out for yourself! This is sure to be one of your favorite TikTok salads.
Other Recipes to Try
- These crunchy Air Fryer Sweet Potato Casserole Stacks are a fun side dish.
- Smoked Cream Cheese takes ordinary cream cheese to a whole new level!
- Chopped Italian Sandwich delivers layers of Italian meats and cheeses.
- This viral TikTok Baked Feta Pasta has vibrant, bright Mediterranean flavors.
- Pair this Green Goddess Dip with a vegetable board or charcuterie platter!
Bella Bucchiotti
Bella Bucchiotti is a Canadian-based syndicated food, travel, and lifestyle writer, photographer, and creator at xoxoBella. She founded xoxoBella in 2015, where she shares her love for food, dogs, sustainability, fitness, crafts, outdoor adventures, travel, and philanthropy to encourage others to run the extra mile, try new recipes, visit unfamiliar places, and stand for a cause. Bella creates stress-free and family-friendly recipes for weeknight dinners and festive feasts.
I finally tried the TikTok-famous salad and I get the hype now! The dressing is unbelievably good—I could eat it with a spoon. It’s fresh, crunchy, and full of flavor. I’ve already made it twice this week!
This recipe tastes amazing! I’m really happy I gave it a shot.
This is the best salad I’ve ever had. I always make it two times a week!
Loved this recipe! Will be making it again.