Caesar Salad Dressing Recipe

If you have a soy allergy, that whole aisle of salad dressings at the grocery store is annoying. Why must they make so many dressings with soybean oil? And some of them are really annoying because they don’t specify which they use, listing something like “soybean AND/OR olive oil”. I don’t know why it took me so long to just make salad dressing myself. I think it’s my reluctance to make everything that we eat, and not wanting to give up on buying basic things like condiments and salad dressing. But then I realized how easy it is to make your own dressing. Added bonus – it tastes so fresh. And there’s no icky raw egg.

This Caesar dressing recipe is gluten free, and depending on the mayonnaise you use, can also be soy free, egg free and/or seed free. You could try making it dairy free by omitting the Parmesan cheese. However, you may need to make up for it with additional salt or something else. I haven’t tried making this dairy free, nor experimented with things like nutritional yeast (which can add a cheese-like flavor). If you try to make this dairy free, please leave a comment and let us know how it turns out!

Fresh lemon juice is important to this recipe. You can certainly make it with bottled lemon juice, but the taste won’t be as fresh and delicious. If you’re avoiding gluten and/or soy, be sure to check the ingredients of your Worcestershire sauce. Last time I checked, Lea & Perrins brand was gluten free and soy free.

Anchovy paste is sold in tubes, and can be found in the supermarket aisle near the cans of tuna fish. Do yourself a favor and DO NOT taste test the anchovy paste! I had a tube sitting the fridge for a while and wanted to see if it was still OK, so I put a teeny, tiny smear on my finger and licked it off. BIG MISTAKE! My breakfast almost came up. It was so disgusting, but you kinda need this stuff to make a real tasty Caesar dressing. Ironic, I know.

A note on mayonnaise: Hellman’s Canola mayonnaise is soy free but not egg free. There are egg free brands on the market, but I haven’t tried them because I haven’t found one that is soy free. (P.S. I recently discovered that canola (aka rapeseed) oil bothers me, so bye bye canola mayo. I’m testing out an allergy friendly mayonnaise recipe and will post it soon. So far, I love it!)

Caesar Dressing Recipe

Ingredients:

2 T. freshly squeezed lemon juice

2 small cloves of garlic, minced

1 tsp. anchovy paste

1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce

1 tsp. Dijon mustard

1 cup mayonnaise

1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, freshly grated, if possible

1/4 tsp. sea salt

1/8 tsp. black pepper, freshly ground

Directions:

In a bowl, whisk together the lemon juice, garlic, anchovy paste, Worcestershire sauce, and mustard until well combined. Then whisk in the remaining ingredients (mayonnaise, Parmesan cheese, salt and pepper). Take a taste and adjust the seasoning if needed. Store in the refrigerator.

Serve this Caesar dressing tossed with romaine lettuce, with additional freshly ground black pepper and/or Parmesan cheese shavings on top. I like my Caesar Salad with grilled chicken – yum!