Caesar Salad Dressing (low-fat version)
Caesar Salad is usually incredibly fattening, sadly. This incredibly delicious version is very close in taste and composition to the 1940s classic versions, while lightening the salad up a fair bit. Most people will be hard pressed to taste any difference in the assembled salad, and they will all prefer it to bottled. For a full-fat version, see our Caesar Salad Dressing Recipe.
Ingredients
Instructions
- Make the salad base (unless you have some prepared in the fridge - click the ingredient above for link), and set aside to cool. When cool, proceed with recipe.
- Put all the ingredients in a food processor or in a blender and press "whiz" until blended.
- When you are ready to assemble the salad, wash and dry the romaine lettuce leaves. Toss with about 3/4 of the salad dressing. Reserve the other 1/4, and use only if needed.
- Then, toss with the parmesan cheese and black pepper and serve.
Notes
Instead of Parmesan, you can use Romano or Grana Padano. Romano, in fact, not only gives it a gutsier, sharper taste than Parmesan, it is also the original cheese that was used in Caesar Salad dressing before the use of Parmesan became popular.
Instead of anchovy paste, you can use 6 (drained) fillets from a can or 1 1/2 tbsp capers (rinsed.)
This is one of those times when, if you are able to produce freshly ground black pepper, you certainly will want to. Feel free to omit the salt entirely, depending upon the tastebuds of your guests. Or use a salt substitute.
You can prepare the dressing in advance, even a day ahead, and store it in the fridge.
You can make this in a bowl with a whisk. If you do, mince the garlic first.
Note on raw egg: If you are feeding someone who is in an at-risk group or are in such a group yourself, or have any reason to doubt the safety of the eggs you are using or to doubt that they arrived in your hands with the safe chain of handling intact, then you may wish to take safety precautions. You could purchase pasteurized eggs. Or, you can use 2 tablespoons of egg from a carton, which will be pasteurized. Or, follow one of the techniques in our entry on egg yolk to render the raw egg yolk safe.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!