How To Make Caesar Salad

posted in Vegetarian, Soups, Salads, Sides and Sauces by Kathy Maister
Difficulty:

Caesar Salad is a standard item on a lot of restaurant menus, but can easily be made at home. It can be an appetizer or, by adding some protein such as chicken or shrimp, can be turned into a complete meal.

(Both the origin of Caesar Salad and its original dressing ingredients are debatable, but Romaine lettuce, Parmesan cheese and croutons are always the base of a Caesar Salad. A homemade Caesar Salad dressing historically included lemon juice, olive oil, an egg, Worcestershire sauce OR anchovies and freshly grated black pepper.)

Today, pre-made Caesar Salad dressing is readily available on the grocery store shelves.

For 2 servings of this Caesar Salad you will need:

1/4 cup of pre-made Caesar salad dressing
2 tablespoons of grated parmesan cheese
1/2 head of Romaine lettuce
2/3 cup of croutons

Romaine Lettuce is the norm for a Caesar Salad. In general, choosing lettuce for a salad can be pretty confusing. Startcooking.com's post on Salad Green From A to Z describes many of the more common types of greens available at most grocery stores.

Be sure to wash the Romaine lettuce and then chop or tear it into bite-size pieces.

Freshly grate Parmesan Cheese and add it to the lettuce.

Gently toss the salad greens with the Caesar dressing and sprinkle on the shredded cheese. Then top with some croutons.

If you like anchovies, then adding a few on top is always a tasty addition!

Salad's ready!

Enjoy!

You can view and print this recipe here.

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14 comments

Kathy Maister

Hi Beth, Caesar Salad and wooden bowls go hand in hand. In fact keeping a wooden bowl dedicated to just Caesar Salad is perfect as you are then able to rub the fresh garlic on the surface of the bowl. You then end up with just a hint of garlic on your salad. Perhaps you would like to share with my readers the difference in taste between parmesan and Asiago cheese Cheers!

Beth Best

ASIAGO A semi-hard table cheese, it is easily shredded into your favorite recipes. Along with a pronounced nut-like flavor, fresh Asiago has a taste that is semi-sweet. Because of this, it is also good when used in a sandwich. Asiago is most commonly used as a grating cheese to serve over pastas, salads, soups, appetizers, and gravies. It has a sharp flavor that resembles Parmesan and Cheddar cheese combined and, because of this, is also popularly used as an ingredient in omelets and sauces. The longer Asiago has aged the firmer its texture, and stronger its flavor, becomes. Once you have purchased your Asiago cheese, make sure that you store it properly. You can use cellophane/plastic wrap to repackage the Asiago cheese or place the cheese in a container specifically designed to hold vegetables or cheeses. Make sure, however, that once you have brought home Asiago cheese it remains stored in your refrigerator. I purchase mine at my local supermarket in the imported cheese area and it is already grated and ready for use. Please enter your comment

Amelia

this is my favourite salad

Kathy Maister

Mine too! On occasion, I do like to add some grilled chicken to it.

Jon (Sacker)

If I'm splashing out then I love to add a char-grilled tuna steak - yum

sourkats

Hi, I hear that the original Caesar Salad was not made with Anchovies. Originally worcestershire sauce was used. And because of it's taste, people acredited it to being anchovies.

Parmesan, lemon juice, egg, worcestershire sauce, and black pepper, and lettuce were prepared table side (uncooked) as the true to goodness original Caesar Salad.

Kathy Maister

Ahhh...gone are the days!

Yes I do remember when a Caesar Salad was a unique salad, prepared at the table in only the finest restaurants, with only the freshest ingredients!

A raw egg was used as part of the dressing. At the Ritz in Boston they did in fact use anchovies as part of the dressing as well. As with all salads, I am sure everyone added their own flair to make it a signature dish.

learning richard

Thanks for the remarkably simple and tasty reminder! I just loaded up on the ingredients and I needed the measurements. This is exactly how I toss the Caesar Salad that my 8 year old daughter loves the most... yay for vegetables!

I'm considering ways to defile the salad with other vegetables, nuts, or fruit to get more bang for my salad buck with the little one (USA palate here) mentioned earlier... you know what a win it is when you can get the pre-teens to eat a vege with some enthusiasm. Comments anyone?

startcooking

Adding nuts and dried fruits like dried cranberries, raisins, and apricots are a great way to make salads more appealing.
I also love adding fruit, sliced apples, pears, mandarin oranges, and grapes are perfect in salads as well!

Pat Singh

I had ceasar salad at Delmonico's in Mexico City's Pink Zone, it was great...I make it today...

1 cup of oil

1 egg

5 strips of anchovies

1 tea spoon worchester sauce

1 clove of gralic

1/2 lemon

parmajon cheese

i mash the garlic and anchovies into paste, put in the oil, egg, add the worchester sauce and lemon juice and mix....i cool it for about 1/2 hour then add the Romane lettice put it on a cold plate and add croutons to the mix and put them on the lettice. I add the grated cheese and serve...(try not to get lemon seeds in the mix use a cloth to cover the lemon and the squeeze)

servers four

startcooking

WOW! The real thing! It must have been fantastic!

The only thing I question is that 1 cup of oil sounds like a lot of oil. Are you sure about that measurement?

Cheers,
Kathy

Cindy

I chop up the anchovies very fine and toss them with the salad so you really don't "see" them but they really add a lot of flavor. Thanks for the recipe

Riko

WOW! thankyou so much for this recipe, i had to prepare for a BBQ. I had to make steak on cesar but i couldn't (for the life of me) remember the measurements for the cesar salad. very helpful! :)

johnny

great recipe!!!

Comments are now closed.

2 trackbacks

url:	http://rdoctor.com/medical_link/?p=62
blog:	RDoctor Medical
title:	Carnival of the Recipes
excerpt:	Kathy Maister presents Caesar Salad posted at Kathy Maister's StartCooking. Look for the variety of the lettuce. Lot's of vitamins and fiber.

url:	http://abstractgourmet.com/dmblgit-nov2006/
blog:	Abstract Gourmet
title:	DMBLGIT Gallery
excerpt:	Kathy - Ceasar salad

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