How to make your own Caesar Salad!
What is Caesar Salad?
Caesar Salad is a leafy green salad that consists of romaine lettuce with a dressing of egg yolks emulsified with olive oil and lemon juice mixed in with anchovies, garlic, dijon mustard, parmesan cheese, salt and black pepper.
The salad was invented by Italian immigrant Caesar Cardini in the 1920s. Caesar Cardini operated restaurants in Mexico and The United States. His daughter recounted that Cardini created the salad at his restaurant Caesar’s during a Fourth of July Rush when he was depleted of kitchen supplies. His original recipe did not contain anchovies and instead contained worchestershire sauce. Through time, chefs have adapted his popular recipe and replaced the worchestershire sauce with anchovies to create a richer and more savory dressing.
How to make Caesar Salad
INGREDIENTS
- 6 anchovies- minced
- 2 cloves of garlic- minced
- 1 tsp of salt
- 2 large egg yolks
- 2 tbsp. of lemon juice
- 3/4 tsp of dijon mustard
- 1/2 cup of olive oil
- 3 tbsp. of shredded parmesan cheese
- Chopped romaine lettuce
INSTRUCTIONS
- Prep anchovies and garlic. Mash together. Add to medium bowl. Add salt. Add 2 egg yolks, lemon juice, dijon mustard and whisk together.
2. Drop by drop, drizzle the olive oil into the bowl with one hand while simultaneously whisking the egg mixture with the other. Emulsifying the olive oil into the egg mixture is the trickiest part. It can be made easier if you have a friend. If you have an extra hand, have one person drizzle in the olive oil as the other continuously whisks the egg mixture. Drizzle at a rate of about 90 seconds for the entire 1/2 cup. The dressing should be thick and glossy. Add in shredded parmesan cheese. Add more salt and pepper to taste.
3. Chop up romaine lettuce. Per plate, spoon 1 tbsp. of Caesar dressing over salad. Top off with some more shredded parmesan cheese and/or chopped anchovies.
Why should I make my own Caesar Salad Dressing?
Typical store-bought Caesar Salad dressing contains vegetable oils, typically canola oil. Vegetable oils are highly processed industrial seed oils that seriously damage our bodies when consumed. Some examples of vegetable oils include canola (from rapeseed), soybean and corn. These oils were rarely consumed until the 1900s and are now consumed on a massive scale due to their economic value.
The seeds that are used to make these oils naturally contain a very small amount of oil. Therefore, in order for the oil to be extracted out, they need to be highly processed. The seeds are exposed to heat, pressure, metals and bleaching agents to have the oil extracted out of them. This industrial processing creates unstable oils that harm our brain, arteries and mitochondria when consumed. This damage negatively impacts our energy and hunger levels and puts us at greater risk of developing chronic illness such as diabetes, cancer, heart disease and obesity.
To learn more about the issues with vegetable oils, I recommend checking out Dr. Cate Shanahan’s work. Dr. Cate Shanahan is a family physician, author and nutrition consultant for the LA Lakers among other NBA teams. Her work has tremendously helped deepen my understanding on the harms of vegetable oil consumption. Listed below are a few resources to her work:
- Dr. Cate Shanahan’s books:
- Dr. Cate Shanahan’s Blog
- Podcast interviews
- Presentations