This Classic Southern Side Dish Tastes 10x Better When Dipped In Remoulade

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Each year, we wait for the end of tomato season, not because we don't love lusciously ripe summer tomatoes (we absolutely do), but it's the unripe green ones that you'll find in the fall that we obsess over. You need them to make an unbeatable Southern dish: Fried green tomatoes. They're fantastic on their own — crispy, slightly tangy, and toothsome. Some like to jazz up fried green tomatoes with pimento cheese, but you can also go for a classic New Orleans pairing with remoulade. This chilled sauce has a deeply layered flavor profile that's bright, a bit spicy and sweet, vegetal, and fresh, with a reddish hue. Together, they complement each other incredibly well, with the warm tomatoes and cold sauce providing a beautiful contrast and the remoulade balancing out the tomatoes' tartness.

It's also super easy to make and gives the dish a massive flavor boost. Best of all, it mostly includes pantry staples like ketchup, Creole or Dijon mustard, olive oil, horseradish, hot sauce, and paprika, along with garlic, green onions, celery, parsley, and lemon juice. All the raw ingredients are tossed into a food processor and blended together. There are other versions that are mayonnaise-based and might include capers for a creamy feel with pops of salty tang from the capers. We've also seen some recipes with green peppers as well. In New Orleans, you'll find a plethora of variations. 

Fried green tomatoes and remoulade make for a delicious pairing, whether you drizzle the remoulade on top or use it as a dipping sauce. But if you want to truly up your fried green tomato game, there's a protein-packed way to do so that can turn this from a side dish into the main course, and it's also simple to prepare. Just add shrimp. This is a go-to way to prepare fried green tomatoes. One version that truly captures these delicious flavors comes from New Orleans' Liuzza's restaurant on Bienville Street in Mid-City, where you can also order it as a po'boy sandwich.

All you have to do is boil the shrimp until tender (we boil ours in Zatarain's Crawfish, Shrimp & Crab Boil, which you can find on Amazon) for about two minutes or so, depending on the size of the shrimp. Then, let the shrimp cool, and then toss with the remoulade. You can serve the dish on a bed of lettuce to give it a little more heft. However you decide to serve your fried green tomatoes, you can't really go wrong pairing them with remoulade. New Orleanians know a thing or two about delicious food and wouldn't steer you wrong.