This St. Patrick's Day-themed Tartar Sauce is naturally dyed green with spinach, Greek yogurt, dill pickles, shallots, garlic, and freshly squeezed lemon juice.
If you're making tartar sauce ahead of time, let it sit in the refrigerator for at least a couple of hours before adjusting the seasoning. It will take time for the salt, pepper, garlic, etc. to permeate the mayonnaise. They will be significantly more pronounced after refrigeration than they are initially.
This means that it can be very easy to overdo it on the seasoning, so it’s better it act with caution and add more later if it’s still necessary. I have a tendency to do this with garlic and onion, especially. If you’re like me and you tend to go to far in this aspect, adding more lemon juice and mayonnaise tends to balance it out. But it helps to save yourself the hassle and just add less to begin with!
Unless you’re a very diligent mincer, this is going to be a rather chunky tartar sauce. If you’re going for less of a rustic consistency, you can purée all of the ingredients in a food processor.
It's quite easy to change up this recipe and put your own spin on it. A lot of tartar sauces include capers, parsley, tarragon, eggs, and/or mustard. Some fanciful tartar sauces are even known to use crème fraîche, instead of mayonnaise.
For a slightly less bad for you recipe, you can substitute full fat mayonnaise for an olive oil or vegan mayonnaise variety. However, let’s be real here, nothing about a mayonnaise-based dish is ever going to be good for you! In these cases, I tend to call the whole meal desert and make a mental note to try to fit an extra workout in. Although that is likely more wishful thinking than anything else! After all, there is definitely something to be said for indulging in some good food from time to time.