A lot of people are under the impression that, as a vegetarian, my diet mainly consists of salads. While that wouldn’t be a bad idea, there are actually several salads that are off-limits, including the ubiquitous Caesar salad. Even if you don’t add the grilled chicken to it, Caesar salads are still generally no-nos to vegetarians, due to the anchovies (a food which I still do not understand, even a little bit).
Some of your “fancier” Caesar salads will have actual anchovies in them, staring up at you as you’re pretending to be healthy by eating a salad. However, even your low-rent Caesar salads generally contain anchovies in the dressing. So, what’s a vegetarian to do? Eat something else. After all, we’re pretty used to that. Sure. Or, we could make our own non-anchovyish Caesar salad dressing. A dressing so versatile that it can even be made, sigh, vegan.
When I was with my family for the holidays, my sister made an amazing vegetarian chicken Caesar salad. I wanted to eat it all the time, so I was not to be deterred by the fact that she lives halfway across the country from me. I set out to recreate the goodness at home. So here you go:
Vegetarian/Vegan Caesar Salad Dressing (serves 2-4)
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tablespoon of mayonnaise (I prefer the mayo made with olive oil, but you vegans out there can use vegan mayo).
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1-3 garlic cloves, minced (I use at least three, but I’m obsessed with garlic. This should really be to your taste)
1/2 lemon, juiced
Dash of soy sauce
salt and pepper to taste
Mix it all together, and BOOM: Best Caesar salad dressing ever. The best part is, you don’t have to mess with raw eggs or any of that nonsense, so it’s fast and less scary than just downing eggs.
As for the salad itself, follow your bliss. Romaine, croutons and parmesan are boring to me, so I decided to make a chicken Caesar salad. I added the parmesan (because it is delicious) and cooked up two of the Morningstar Farms Italian Herb Chik Patties, sliced those bad boys up and stuck them in. I also added cucumber because they’re delightful and we had some that needed to be used up. All in all, if I didn’t make Luke have some, I would have sat there and eaten the entire bowl of salad, which would have been pretty much the opposite of the healthy, “I think I’ll have a salad for dinner” choice.
Clacked by Kona Gallagher 
on Dec 30, 2009 @ 09:57 EST5EDT
It sounds like a great recipe, but I can’t imagine a Caesar without anchovies. I totally understand your confusion about them though, especially being a vegetarian and not having a chance to try them. They make an amazing flavor base. I can barely make a pasta sauce without adding some anchovy paste these days.
Yeah, I don’t really trust fish that comes in a tin can. However, there are a lot of things in this world that I simply do not understand.
Me too! I for one, do not understand mayonnaise, so I’d love to know if there’s something I could use in your recipe in place of that vile goopy substance.
An egg yolk would probably do the trick…. then you would pretty much be making your own mayo.
I haven’t tried this, but since it’s only a tablespoon, I bet you could get away with using plain yogurt instead.
Oh, I bet you’re right!