In true Craft & Process style, this recipe for caesar salad is mostly homemade. Make the dressing and croutons yourself, and this becomes a delicious, rewarding, and satisfying main course. It’s fast enough to do for a weeknight dinner as well.
What if I told you that this post is not one, not two, but three recipes! Seriously: bonus recipes in this post! We’ve got quick and easy homemade croutons AND simple caesar dressing. Use them all together for this caesar salad recipe, or bring those croutons or dressing into different salads to mix it up.
These croutons will keep at room temperature pretty much indefinitely. They are great on soups as well as salads. If you have a day old loaf of bread, this is a great use for it. Made Jon’s crusty white bread but for some reason didn’t eat the entire loaf in one sitting? Here’s your next dish! You can go more rustic and rip the bread into crouton sized pieces, or slice with a bread knife for even cubes. No need to avoid the crust of the bread as it adds textural variety to the finished croutons.
The caesar salad dressing is really the star here. Simply measure the ingredients together in the blender, soft poach the egg in the microwave, and blend until combined. This recipe usually makes enough to dress 4-6 salads.
Anchovies are the traditional caesar salad component, but in a pinch, I have also used a few dashes of fish sauce. Fish sauce is made from anchovies, so it will add that same fishy funk to the dressing. If your nose is curling up thinking about fish sauce and/or anchovies, than feel free to skip this ingredient all together. This will still be a delicious dressing!
You can certainly poach the egg in water on the stovetop, but the microwave works a little faster, and since the egg is getting blended into the dressing, you don’t need to keep it in that perfect shape. Crack the egg into a small microwave safe container and add enough water to cover. Luckily enough, when we were making this to photograph for this post we got a very pretty looking poached egg, but usually it is much more of a mess.
Microwave in 30 second intervals until the egg whites are opaque. In our microwave, which runs weaker, this takes about 60-90 seconds. The egg will continue to cook in the warm water, so if you can, leave it for a few seconds in between intervals for carryover cooking.
Since this salad has so few ingredients, be sure to use your favorite bowls or plates for serving! Sometimes simple, intentional, aesthetic decisions can turn a simple salad into a main course. Toss this on a nice plate or bowl, and settle in with a glass of white wine. Dinner’s served!
A mostly homemade caesar salad, including fresh croutons and dressing. Perfect easy and fast weeknight meal, or a side dish or appetizer with a weekend dinner. Adapted from NYTimes Cooking
- 1 small loaf crusty bread day old or fresh
- 1 egg
- 2 garlic cloves
- 4 to 6 anchovies or 1 tsp fish sauce
- 1 1/2 tsp mustard
- 1/2 tsp coarse salt
- ½ tsp freshly ground black pepper
- ½ cup extra virgin olive oil
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 lb romaine lettuce and/or kale chopped
- 4 ounces freshly grated aged cheese (like Parmesan)
-
Preheat oven to 400 ℉, and slice or tear the loaf of bread into bite size pieces.
-
Arrange bread pieces on a baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes until crisp and toasted. Let cool.
-
Crack egg into a microwave safe container and cover with water.
-
Microwave for 30 seconds and then let rest for 30 seconds. Repeat once or twice more until the egg white are opaque.
-
Combine the rest of the dressing ingredients in a blender, and blend until fully emulsified.
-
Add more olive oil, lemon juice, mustard, salt, or pepper to taste.
-
Combine salad greens, cheese, and croutons, and toss with dressing.