Green Goddess Weedy Dip

This recipe for Green Goddess Dip is a delicious nutritious dip or a healthy alternative to mayo. It is super versatile, and makes use of many common garden and wild edible weeds.

Ever since my Forage and Fest day with Anna from The Veggie Tree I am obsessed with this dip! And not just because of its name, I love the tangy flavour with the creaminess of the cashews and hemp seeds, it’s totally addictive in a very good way.

Best of all you can find all the leafy ingredients by foraging, you don’t even need to grow anything yourself – unless you have a weed garden which is what Anna has – and it’s an abundant source of nutritious food.

Anna’s back yard has an ongoing supply of healthy, yummy food. All she has to do is go out to the yard and pick a big handful of what’s looking lush, you can do the same by wandering around your neighbourhood.

For this dip you can gather nasturtium, chickweed, onion weed, dandelion, oxalis, dock, plantain, puha and wild mustard.

Enjoy this dip with seed crackers, raw vegetables, on a veggie burger you could have it with hot chips, steamed potatoes or kumara, with roast veggies or an omelette or quiche, you could also stir it through pasta or as a side to a cooked breakfast. The options are endless.

Green Goddess Weedy Dip Recipe

Vegan | Gluten-free | Makes 2 cups

Gather your ingredients and measure the following into a high speed blender (depending on the power of your blender you may omit the water for a thicker dip):

2 cups wild weeds or other leafy greens, roughly chopped

1/2 cup cashews (soaked in hottest tap water for 1 hour then drained)

Zest and juice 1 lemon

1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

1/4 water (optional, if you don’t have a high power blender you may need this)

2 cloves garlic, peeled

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/4 cup hemp seed oil (or extra olive oil)

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

2 tablespoons nutritional yeast (optional)

Blitz until smooth and serve. It will thicken up a bit more in the fridge.

If you’d like to experience one of Anna’s Forage and Feast workshops you can contact her via email here [email protected]. Also check out her website theveggietree.com

For information on what weeds are edible go here.

This is one of the reviews from Anna’s website …

We have done cooking schools all over the world but never in NZ. So on a trip North we tried out The Veggie Tree in Kaeo. Anna didn’t have any scheduled events that matched our timing so she offered a 4 hr hands-on class for the 2 of us. Must admit that when we arrived we wondered if we had the right address as it was an ancient house up a steep drive. However as soon as Anna welcomed us into her home kitchen we knew we had made the right decision and over the next 4 hours we made a wide range of dishes mostly from fresh ingredients that Anna had grown or foraged. We aren’t vegetarians but it was great to learn some new flavour combinations and really helpful tips. Better yet was when we ate it all for lunch, the orange and almond cake was worth the trip on its own plus stocking up with lots of Anna’s preserves. If you love good, healthy food then go and visit Anna. Peter Dickinson