Make your own caesar salad dressing with simple ingredients – leave out the parmesan cheese to keep it dairy free or use nutritional yeast instead.
Caesar Salad Dressing at A Glance
- It’s dairy free, but you can add parmesan if you’d like:
- Though is looks like a creamy, dairy-based dressing there isn’t actually any dairy needed to make this. Feel free to add parmesan to add a bit more umami to your final dressing or nutritional yeast if you’d like to keep it dairy free.
- You can make it in a blender or with an immersion blender:
- The key to success is to blend all of your ingredients except the oil first, then slowly drizzle in the oil with blending in a steady stream so the mixture has a chance to emulsify into a thickened texture instead of separate like oil and water usually does.
- Raw egg safety:
- If you’re concerned about the safety of eating raw egg yolk, make sure to use pasteurized eggs. Check the egg carton for a ‘P’ stamp or a ‘pasteurized’ label. Some countries like the UK usually sell unpasteurized eggs because hens are vaccinated against salmonella early on. Check for eggs stamped with a red lion on the shell or eggs ‘Laid in Britain’ to ensure food safety standards for the UK or check your country’s food labelling for what to look for.
What to do with leftover anchovies?
Don’t throw out the leftover anchovies or push them back in the fridge until you forget about them!
Anchovies are super savory and salty – great for adding umami. Though they do have quite a strong smell and flavor all on their own, they play well with other ingredients when added to sauces and dressings.
A few ideas to try out:
- Pizza sauce or marinara: Add 1-2 chopped fillets along with the onion & garlic, then make your sauce as usual.
- Pizza – Anchovies on pizza are a thing for good reason! If you don’t want to add them to the sauce, chop them up and add them as a topping – made with a gluten free pizza dough, of course.
- This Za’atar Spiced Chickpea Pasta is one I adapted to be vegan from a recipe found in Yotam Ottolenghi‘s book Simple. The original recipe used anchovy fillets instead of miso paste. My adapted recipe is very highly rated, but you can’t go wrong by going with minced anchovies here!
- Pan Seared Chicken & Chickpeas in a Lemon-Anchovy Sauce – this is a riff off of the pasta recipe from above for the meat eaters.
More Sauces & Dressing
Enjoy!
Let me know if you try this caesar salad dressing recipe! Leave a comment and review with your thoughts. I always appreciate the feedback and serving suggestions that you come up with!
Recipe
Caesar Salad Dressing
Yield:
8 servings
Prep Time:
10 minutes
Total Time:
10 minutes
Easy Caesar Salad Dressing - paleo with a dairy free option
Ingredients
- 1 egg yolk from a pasteurized egg, room temperature
- 1-2 cloves garlic, depending on how much you like garlic, crushed
- 3 tbsp fresh lemon juice
- 2 tsp anchovy paste or 4 anchovy fillets finely minced
- 2 tsp Dijon mustard
- ½ tsp salt - plus more to taste
- ½ tsp black pepper - plus more to taste
- 1 cup olive oil (240ml)
- ¼ cup grated parmesan (25g) or nutritional yeast (30g) - optional*
Need help converting to weights? Check out my cups to grams Conversion Guide.
Instructions
Immersion Blender
- Add all of you ingredients except the oil (& parmesan/nutritional yeast, if using) to a large mason. Put your immersion blender all the way in the jar and blend everything together until it starts to emulsify.
- Slowly drizzle the olive oil into the mixture. Blend and slowly pull up the blender as you go. The dressing will thicken and become creamy after a minute or two.
- Add the parmesan cheese if using and blend again to combine. Taste and season with additional salt and pepper as you see fit.
Blender
- Add everything except for the oil (and parmesan/nutritional yeast if using) to a blender and blend on a low speed for about 10-30 seconds to combine.
- With the blender still running a low speed, slowly pour the olive oil into the blender through the feeding cap on top in a steady stream.
- Stop the blender and scrape down the sides. Add the parmesan (if using) then blend once more on a low speed for a few seconds. Taste and season with additional salt and pepper as you see fit.
Notes
- Store: Keep refrigerated in an airtight container. Use within a 3-5days.
- Raw egg safety: If possible, make sure to use an egg yolk from a pasteurized egg. These are eggs that have been gently heated in their shells to destroy potential harmful bacteria like salmonella. Check egg cartons for a "P" stamp or pasteurized label. Some countries like the UK usually sell unpasteurized eggs because hens are vaccinated against salmonella early on. Check for eggs stamped with a red lion on the shell or eggs 'Laid in Britain' to ensure food safety standards.
Nutrition Information
Yield: 8
Serving Size:
tablespoons Calories: 100Saturated Fat: 2gCholesterol: 56mgSodium: 492mgCarbohydrates: 1gProtein: 3gThis website provides approximate nutrition information for convenience and as a courtesy only. Nutrition data is gathered primarily from the USDA Food Composition Database, whenever available, or otherwise other online calculators.
Sophie says
How long does the dressing last ?
Sarah Nevins says
Hi Sophie! Homemade caesar salad dressing should last in the fridge for about a week
Erin says
Hi! Loving this recipe!
Would love some advice on a few questions: 1. When we blend it all together it doesn’t seem to be emulsifying and look thick and creamy like your picture. It seems quite separated in the oil. 2. Once we put in the fridge, it all separates and goes solid in the jar – how do we use it a second time after going solid? Reheat, wait to warm to room temp?
Would so appreciate your recommendations!
Sarah Nevins says
Hi Erin! So glad you’ve been enjoying it!
If it didn’t thicken up in the blender you can semi-start over by adding an extra egg yolk. Instead of mixing in the blender though I recommend starting with a fresh egg yolk in a small mixing bowl and slowly adding a little bit of your runny dressing to the yolk as you whisk quickly. Keep adding the dressing to the egg yolk and whisking and it should thicken up the more you add. This might take a few minutes but it should work out! Sometimes mixing emulsions like this in the blender just don’t want to come out right because the oil gets added too quickly.
If you don’t want to worry about fixing the dressing you can just stir it up well after taking it out of the fridge. Maybe leave it out at room temp for a few minutes but you shouldn’t need much more than that.
Hope that helps!
Ginni says
This is a delicious dressing and dairy free too, love it! I only added a tsp of white vinegar, so yummy thank you!!
Sarah says
Thanks Ginni! So glad you liked it!
Raia says
Caesar dressing is by far my favorite. I’m going to have to giuve your version a try! Thanks for shing it at Savoring Saturdays!
Sarah says
Hope you like it! 🙂
Kristy @ Southern In Law says
Ohhhh this looks amazing! I feel like I’d be drizzling this over everything!
Sarah says
Thanks Kristy!
Heather says
low cal or not, there is almost nothing that compares to a perfectly made caesar salad!! this dressing looks absolutely perfet
Sarah says
agreed! There’s a reason why everyone loves it so much! Thanks Heather 🙂