Skip the bottled dressing and make this creamy homemade Caesar Salad Dressing using fresh ingredients from your own kitchen. Serve it drizzled over a bed of crisp Romaine lettuce topped with crunchy garlic croutons and a sprinkle of shredded Parmesan cheese or serve it as a dip or sandwich spread.
Easy Caesar Salad Dressing Recipe
This salad dressing is one that's perfection tweaked to your own taste. Caesar dressing when made fresh often uses raw pasteurized eggs as the emulsifier. I'm fine with this technique but perhaps some prefer to have an alternate to enjoy. This version starts with mayonnaise and leaves out the eggs.
How to Make the Best Caesar Salad Dressing Recipe
- Ingredients you'll need to make homemade Caesar Salad Dressing: Lemon juice, canola or olive oil, mayonnaise, garlic, anchovy paste, white balsamic vinegar, salt, black pepper, finely grated Parmesan Reggiano cheese, Dijon mustard and Worcestershire sauce.
- Kitchen gadgets you'll need: A food processor or a stand blender. You can use a whisk and bowl but you'll need some elbow grease to mix it all together and emulsify the ingredients fully.
- If you choose to make this dressing by hand using old fashioned elbow grease and a whisk, you'll need to mince the garlic cloves by hand prior to starting. A good stand blender or food processor will do this easily.
- Anchovy paste is readily available in most grocery stores. I typically find it near the canned tuna and other canned seafood items at the grocery store.
- The amount of salt and black pepper can be adjusted in this recipe to suit your taste. The sodium amount can vary wildly depending on the brand of mayonnaise used.
- As I discussed earlier, this recipe doesn't use eggs as the emulsifier, the mayonnaise does that job for you.
- The beauty of making homemade salad dressings is, that you can thicken the dressing further using more mayonnaise. Likewise, you can thin further with more oil. Keep in mind the cheese will also thicken the dressing so wait to make that call until all of the ingredients have been combined.
- Store homemade creamy Caesar Salad Dressing well chilled in a mason jar or airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. Shake before using.
More Homemade Salad Dressings to Make
If you enjoy making your own dressings and dips from scratch I have a few others you may also like to try: More homemade dressing recipes to make:
- Better than Chick fil A Avocado Lime Ranch Dressing.
- Green Goddess Dressing is filled with fresh herbs.
- Poppy Seed Salad Dressing is sweet and tangy.
- Jalapeno Ranch Dressing can be used as a dip, drizzled on tacos or salads.
- Thin out my recipe for Bleu Cheese Dip with buttermilk and you have homemade Bleu Cheese Dressing.
- Balsamic Vinaigrette recipe from Barefeet in the Kitchen.
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Helpful Kitchen Items:
Caesar Salad Dressing
Ingredients
- ½ cup real mayonnaise
- ¼ cup fresh lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon white balsamic vinegar (or white vinegar)
- 2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1-2 teaspoon anchovy paste adjust to taste
- 3 large cloves garlic roughly chopped
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- ½ cup canola oil, vegetable oil or olive oil
- ⅓ cup finely grated Parmesan OR Parmesan Reggiano cheese
Instructions
- In a food processor or stand blender combine mayonnaise, lemon juice, vinegar, Dijon mustard, Worcestershire sauce, anchovy paste, garlic, salt and black pepper. Process until blended and smooth.
- With the food processor or blender running, gradually and slowly add the oil. Process until thick and creamy, then add the parmesan cheese and process in short pulses just until blended. Taste and adjust salt and black pepper to taste.
- Use immediately or chill in an airtight container for up to 4 days. (Makes approximately 1 ½ cups)
Notes
- The beauty of making homemade salad dressings is, that you can thicken the dressing further using more mayonnaise. Likewise, you can thin further with more oil. Keep in mind the cheese will also thicken the dressing so wait to make that call until all of the ingredients have been combined.
Judy Allen
Need a good Thousand Island dressing recipe. That is the only salad dressing I eat.
Melissa
Maybe you'll like the dressing that I use on my Reuben Sliders. You can see that recipe here.