Recipe: Caesar salad

Yesterday, March 15, was the Ides of March. Happy belated stab-a-dictator day! Completely hypothetically speaking, of course.

Jamieson was out sick the last two days of school before spring break, so he missed out on his English class’ mock trial presentation, where he was slated to play the role of the attorney defending Marcus Brutus from accusations of murdering Julius Caesar (the defense claimed justifiable homicide).

So now I want to share my recipe for my version of Caesar salad. I know that the salad is totally unrelated to Julius Caesar, but “Caesar the dictator” reminded me of “Caesar the salad” so here we are.

This isn’t really a traditional version of Caesar salad — those contain raw egg yolk and no mayonnaise — but it’s delicious and I love it. I go through phases where I want to eat Caesar salads for every meal, and I’m in one of those right now.

The salad is super easy to throw together. I chop some romaine lettuce, toss it with lemon caesar dressing (recipe below), sprinkle on some Parmesan cheese (freshly grated from a chunk is the best quality, but you can definitely use a tub of pre-grated or even the green shaker jar), some croutons, and a few grinds of black pepper. And you can use any amounts of those ingredients you like — adjust them to your own taste!

Other things I sometimes like to add to my Caesar salads:

• chicken (grilled and diced, or rotisserie are both great options)
• shrimp
• salmon
• smoked salmon (I like hot-smoked, not cold-smoked)
• air-fried tofu cubes
• air-fried potato cubes
• diced avocado
• pickled jalapeños
• broken tortilla chips instead of croutons
• halved grape tomatoes

Here is my recipe for the Lemon Caesar Dressing. You could of course buy a bottle of dressing at the store, and that stuff is perfectly good, but my version is lighter in calories, and packs a real flavor punch from the lemon.

This dressing uses anchovies, and you may be thinking YUCK, there’s no way I’m going to eat anchovies, and I totally get that! The amount is pretty small, though, and it really serves just to add some salty umami oomph to the dressing (no detectable fishy flavor), but you could use some fish sauce instead, or just leave it out entirely for a slightly less oomphy dressing. I prefer keeping a tube of anchovy paste in my refrigerator, rather than having to open and store a tin of oily little fishes — the paste is pre-minced, not smelly, and lasts forever.

Print Recipe

Lemon Caesar Dressing

Course: Condiments

Servings: 16 servings

Ingredients 

• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 anchovy fillets, minced (or 2 teaspoons anchovy paste or fish sauce)
• 1 cup mayonnaise, regular or light
• 2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 4-8 tablespoons lemon juice
• salt to taste
• ground black pepper to taste

Instructions

• With a fork, mash the minced garlic with the minced anchovies (or anchovy paste or fish sauce) in a small bowl.
• Stir in 2 tablespoons of the mayonnaise until the mixture is combined thoroughly, then add the rest of the mayonnaise.
• Stir in the Parmesan cheese, Worcestershire sauce, Dijon mustard, and enough lemon juice to make the dressing the consistency you like.
• Season it to taste with salt and black pepper. Refrigerate the dressing until ready to use.