Healthier Caesar Salad

When I’m given the choice of salads, Caesar is my answer. The creaminess of the dressing and the simplicity of the veggies is exactly what I’m looking for. I’m not a huge fan of tomatoes, cauliflower, or disgusting carrots, so a salad that consists of lettuce, cheese, and croutons is perfect!

Unfortunately, as with anything that tastes amazing, this isn’t the healthiest thing to eat as an appetizer or meal. So the question of the day is, “How can we cut out some of the crap while maintaining the creamy Caesar taste?”

Optional step: Make some croutons.

I took some stale bread, sprayed it up with cooking spray, liberally applied some garlic powder, and then baked it at 400ºF for about 12 minutes. They came out nice and crispy (perfect for Caesar salad).

I wasn’t sure if I was going to go with anchovy paste or find some sort of acceptable replacement (apparently worcestershire sauce is a good option)… but it wasn’t too expensive, so I went with it. I had quite a hard time finding this tube until I stumbled across the tuna aisle.

Aside from the paste, we’re adding some light mayo, olive oil, lemon juice, and Parmesan cheese into the mix and looking for a nice creamy consistency.

I had to use up some steak I bought last week, so that also got thrown into the mix… completely against Caesar protocol.

In the end, the taste was close enough. I’ve never made a true Caesar dressing, but something irks me about using raw eggs in a salad dressing, not to mention the insane amounts of olive oil required.