Inauthentic Caesar Dressing and Salad

A good caesar salad is a thing of delicious beauty but making the salad dressing from scratch can be time consuming and if you are like me you don’t love buying pre made dressings.  Which is why I was so happy to find this dressing recipe in “Smitten Kitchen Every Day” it is as Deb says “Inauthentic” but it ticks all the boxes as far as I’m concerned.  I like my caesar pretty basic just croutons, bacon, cos lettuce, egg and parmesan but feel free to add chicken, smoked salmon or anchovies.

Dressing Ingredients

• 1 1/2 tbsp mayonnaise
• 1 small garlic clove, minced
• 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tsp Dijon mustard
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• Salt and freshly ground pepper

Put all dressing ingredients except for olive oil in a small bowl and whisk to combine.

Whisk in the oil gradually, no need to do it drop by drop like when making mayonnaise but just don’t plonk the whole lot in at once.

Season to taste with salt and pepper and that’s it.  Deb suggests to make a double batch as it keeps for weeks in the fridge – I wouldn’t know about that that as we go through it too quick for that.

Now the rest isn’t really a recipe but just steps that I go to too build the salad.  Lets start with the croutons.

Tear, rip, slice stale bread into bite size pieces.  Toss with olive olive and season lightly with so sea salt.   Toast in a low oven until crisp and golden.

Next job boil as many eggs as you feel like I prefer mine medium to hard boiled but its up to you.  Tear up a head of cos lettuce, wash and spin out to get rid of excess water. Pan fry some chopped up bacon and drain on some paper towel.

In a large bowl toss some of the dressing with the lettuce just enough to coat it lightly.

Pop the lettuce into a serving bowl and top with the egg, bacon and croutons, drizzle with plenty of extra dressing and grate over some parmesan.

If you are caesar salad fan I hope you give this dressing along with your favourite salad ingredients a go.

Enjoy.

Sheryl x