Caesar salad is just lettuce and croutons with a classic dressing. The lettuce should be romaine as this is good and crisp and doesn't wilt too easily.
Traditionally the ingredients are put together at the table in a piece of culinary theatre but it really doesn't affect the taste if you can't be bothered!
The dressing is a bit special. The classic recipe is made with raw egg but this can be a problem for pregnant mums.
Other non-vegetarian ingredients in the classic dressing are anchovies, either as a direct ingredient or a constituent of Worcestershire Sauce, and Parmesan Cheese.
According to Wikipedia Caesar Cardini, the creator of this Salad, never used anchovies.
This recipe ingredients that are acceptable to vegetarians without losing sight of the classic original.
Parmesan Cheese is always made with animal rennet but there are similarly tasty hard cheese made with vegetarian rennet available. See what the Vegetarian Society has to say here.
The Worcestershire Sauce is replaced with Soy Sauce.
To make 2 servings:
1 small head of Romaine or Cos Lettuce 2 thick slices White Bread 50g Tofu 5ml Dijon Mustard 5ml Soy Sauce 10g tasty Hard Cheese, grated 40ml Lemon Juice 1 clove Garlic 20ml Olive Oil 1 pinch each of Salt, Pepper and Sugar Total |
KCal 60 160 72 9 3 44 10 4 119 5 486 |
Around 245 KCal per serving
Separate the lettuce into separate leaves, washing them in clean water. make sure that the lettuce is crisp, soaking in clean water if necessary. I like to serve the leaves whole, but you can tear them into smaller pieces if you like. Discard any leaf that is not crisp and good looking.
The easy way to make croutons is to spread pieces of bread on a baking tray, sprinkle with a little of the olive oil, salt and pepper and put in a hot oven, turning occasionally until they are nice and toasted. Don't let them get crunchy though.
To make the dressing put the tofu, cheese, garlic and lemon juice in a blender and blend briefly. Add the soy sauce and the mustard,sugar, salt and pepper and blend briefly again. Now add the rest of the olive oil with the blender running.
To serve, toss the lettuce in the dressing and then add the croutons.
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