Name: Easy Caesar Dressing
Prep time: 10 min
Yield: 12 servings
Ingredients: 1 tablespoon anchovy paste (or 3-4 flat or rolled anchovy fillets); 2 cloves garlic; 1 teaspoon dijon mustard; 1/3 cup red wine vinegar; juice of 1/2 lemon; 2/3 cups neutral-flavored oil (I use grapeseed, but canola, safflower, or vegetable oil will work as well); salt and pepper (to taste)

Easy Caesar Dressing (No-Egg Recipe) + Video

September 21, 2017

This easy Caesar dressing is easy to make in your blender or food processor and requires no eggs, so it lasts a long time. And it’s SO tasty! Scroll down for video.

Essentially, Caesar salad came into my life when Philip Haymaker came into my life. Well, when he came into my life full-time, anyway (since we knew each other for four years before we started dating).

I remember what he ordered on our first date: angel hair pasta with tomato-basil sauce and a Caesar salad. That was on a Tuesday night. We went out again on Friday…I don’t remember what entrée he ordered, but I remember this: he ordered a Caesar salad. And almost ever restaurant salad that he has ordered in the last fourteen and a half (!) years has been the same.

I don’t mean to imply that I had never encountered (or eaten) a Caesar salad before that first date. I recall a Caesar salad at a Red Lobster in California when I was visiting my aunt the summer before eighth grade. I also remember telling my mom about it and her saying, “Do you like Caesar salad?” in a shocked sort of way. It’s just that my family didn’t eat too many Caesar salads back then….most of our salads were of the iceberg variety, with tomatoes and maybe some green peppers or avocado mixed in, usually with a creamy ranch or blue cheese dressing. It’s actually funny to think about that now because my mom and my sister are pretty much completely enamored with Caesar salad these days and the four of us threaten each other with steak knives to see who’s going to get the last of the salad (not really but almost).

Caesar dressing is an enigma of sorts and there are all types of stories about what Caesar salad is supposed to be. You know what I say? Caesar salad is supposed to be good. I don’t think when Caesar Cardini threw together the first Caesar salad in his Tijuana hotel kitchen that he swore then and there under his breath to seek revenge on anyone that dared to change the recipe.

So here’s how it goes…you can put eggs in….or leave them out. You can use anchovies, or maybe you prefer paste (I do) or maybe you’d rather just use Worcestershire sauce (which contains anchovies)? Okay. Maybe you like your cheese shredded, or maybe you like it grated. Whatevs. Do you like to rub the bowl with garlic or do you like to crush the garlic into your dressing? Have it your way. Would you rather make a pourable dressing or would you rather assemble the salad in the bowl then make the dressing right there on the lettuce (as I did in this post)? The world is your oyster.

I’ve been doing it that way for a while: lettuce in the bowl, then egg yolks, garlic, cheese, lemon juice/vinegar, olive oil, and cheese plus croutons. I like it that way….but here’s what I don’t like: one-day salad. Make that one-hour salad. We all know that once you dress lettuce it’s done for….so I was happy when my aunt gave me her easy Caesar dressing recipe (which I used to have before the blog but lost). It doesn’t contain eggs so it’s got a relatively long shelf-life (I’ve kept it for up to four days in my fridge) and it emulsifies beautifully if you blend it just fast enough, and you just use what you need.

As you can see, this is not a very “traditional” salad I’ve photographed for you here….I didn’t have bread to make croutons so I crushed up some Stacy’s Simply Naked pita chips. They were perfect. And while I prefer shredded cheese on my salads because it coats the leaves oh so perfectly, cheese (Grana Padano in this case but usually Parmigiano Reggiano) shaved with a vegetable peeler makes a nicer visual impact for photos. My easy Caesar dressing pairs perfectly with this fresh salad.

This easy Caesar dressing is quick enough that you can keep it in the fridge all the time. Which you’ll want to do.

Mary

Yield: 12 servings
2 tablespoons
45
Easy Caesar Dressing
10 minPrep Time:
10 minTotal Time:

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Ingredients
1 tablespoon anchovy paste (or 3-4 flat or rolled anchovy fillets)
2 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon dijon mustard
1/3 cup red wine vinegar
juice of 1/2 lemon
2/3 cups neutral-flavored oil (I use grapeseed, but canola, safflower, or vegetable oil will work as well)
salt and pepper (to taste)
Instructions
Press the garlic through a garlic press or grate on a Microplane or fine grater. Place in a food processor or blender or a container you can fit your immersion blender into (like my homemade mayonnaise, a pint-sized Mason jar works well here) along with all of the other ingredients except the oil and vinegar.
Mix well, carefully breaking up/mashing the anchovy fillets if you are using them.
Add the oil and vinegar and blend on the highest speed that your machine allows until completely smooth and emulsified. Use a leaf of the lettuce you will be using to make your salad to taste; adjust seasonings. Store in the refrigerator.
7.8.1.2
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https://chattavore.com/easy-caesar-dressing/

Shared on Meal Plan Monday on Southern Plate.

Creamy Honey Lime Dressing with Ginger

August 1, 2016

This honey lime dressing is sweet and creamy with a spicy hit of ginger (completely optional!). It’s perfect for your summer (or winter) salads!

Writing a food blog is an interesting dichotomy. My life is filled with food – cookbooks, cooking magazines, blogs, lists of recipes to make, food photos, and all the rich food that you could ever hope to try. Problem is that I think about food so much that a lot of times when it comes time to make the food I can’t bring myself to. We end up eating way too much indulgent food because that’s what we have around, and my mindful eating is shot (eating cuz you ate is strong around here).

One of my constant goals is to fit more fruits and vegetables into our diet. As much as I would love to be one of those organized ladies who keeps perfectly chopped up salad greens (I even have a tutorial about that), fruits, and other tasty veggies stored flawlessly in my fridge, ready to be grabbed at a moment’s notice, the reality is quite the opposite. I love fruits and vegetables – salad especially – but even when I take the time to pre-prep my salad greens I usually end up forgetting about them. Getting time to prep them is a rare occurrence; I work two jobs (ahem, behavior analyst and blogger) in addition to trying to enjoy my family, so I try to carve out time that I’m not busy each week. Heck, after making bread by hand for a good long while then buying bakery loaves for the past year, I caved this week and bought a bread maker. I am not too proud to use a machine.

One of the things that helps me remember to eat my greens is having some sort of fabulous dressing in the fridge. Homemade ranch and green goddess are two of my go-tos, but during the summer I want something to go with fruity salads. To me, spinach, arugula, and tender mixed greens pair perfectly with berries and peaches, and the whole combination needs a sweet and light dressing to complement it. Enter this creamy honey lime dressing. I didn’t want my honey lime dressing to be a vinaigrette; as much as I love vinaigrettes, sometimes I think the acid from the vinegar is a little much, and I wanted a creamy, not oil-based, dressing.

Turns out that Greek yogurt is a perfect base for a creamy honey lime dressing. I whisked together Greek yogurt, honey, lime zest and juice, a splash of apple cider vinegar, and a hit of fresh ginger to make this sweet, tangy, and slightly spicy dressing. It is the perfect foil for the earthy flavor of the spinach in this salad (and would perfectly complement a plate of bitter, spicy arugula) and pairs deliciously with the sweet summer fruit. If you don’t want the spice, you could leave out the ginger, but honestly, it’s very understated (Philip would have liked more and I thought it was just perfect).

Try this creamy honey lime dressing on your fresh summery salads!

Mary

Yield: 1 1/4 cups dressing

Creamy Honey Lime Dressing with Ginger

5 minPrep Time:

5 minTotal Time:

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Ingredients

1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt (I used Chobani whole milk Greek yogurt)
1/2 cup honey
zest and juice of 1 lime (be sure to zest it before juicing it!)
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger (about a 2-inch piece, peeled) (optional)

Instructions

Combine all ingredients in a blender and blend until well-combined, or whisk together in a small bowl or jar. Store in a lidded bowl or jar in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.

https://chattavore.com/creamy-honey-lime-dressing-with-ginger/

This honey lime dressing is sweet and creamy with a spicy hit of ginger (completely optional!). It's perfect for your summer (or winter) salads! | recipe from Chattavore.com

Chop Chop Salad with Creamy Kalamata Dressing

April 25, 2016

Chop chop salad with creamy kalamata dressing is my version of the house salad from Crust Pizza, one of my very favorite restaurant salads.

Chopped salads were a big trend a few years ago. Honestly, I can’t really tell you what sets “chopped” salads apart from “regular salads, because essentially all of the salads that I make are chopped salads. I guess the word “chopped” just refers to having a bunch of ingredients in addition to whatever green you are using that are chopped up with a knife. Am I right or am I wrong? Someone help me here.

I remember when I was a teenager reading somewhere that you shouldn’t use a knife to chop lettuce because it would cause the cut edges to turn brown. While that’s true (it has something to do with how the cutting action damages the cells of the lettuce), unless you are going to serve the lettuce a few days later and/or you are really concerned about a little bit of browning, who cares? Personally, I am not down to tear up a huge pile of lettuce. I have better things to do with my time, and I imagine that you guys do too. I’ll use my knife, thank you.

One of my favorite pizza places in town is Crust Pizza (home of the cracker-thin crust…I thought I loved Pizza Hut’s thin crust the best until I ate at Crust). When you go there for their lunch buffet, you get a salad to go with your pizza. Their house salad is one of the best chopped salads I’ve ever eaten, with iceberg lettuce, romaine, spinach, cucumbers, mushrooms, tomatoes, red onion (you guys know I pick that out), garbanzo beans, sunflower seeds, and mozzarella cheese. I always order mine with their creamy kalamata dressing, which I liked long before I had my olive awakening last year. I guess it helped to ease me in. That salad…that salad is art. For a house salad, it’s pretty huge and served in a cute stainless steel bowl (unfortunately I don’t have one that size).

My chop chop salad is my ode to that amazing salad. I tossed together all of the ingredients except, of course, the onions, and the mushrooms because Philip didn’t realize that cremini mushrooms are the same as baby bellas (that’s my fault because I thought about that and forgot to tell him that they were the same thing…I couldn’t remember how Publix labels their creminis. They label them as baby bellas. Oops. I threw in some kalamata olives on top too, because why not?

To top my chop chop salad, I of course whizzed up a creamy kalamata dressing. All of the recipes I found when I was researching kalamata dressing online were vinaigrettes and I WANTED A CREAMY DRESSING, so I had to make this up on my own. It worked out. I am now officially obsessed with this salad and I want to eat it every day. And this past week, that’s just what I did for lunch.

Make this chop chop salad for lunch or dinner this week!

Mary

Yield: 4 salads

Chop Chop Salad

30 minPrep Time:

30 minTotal Time:

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Ingredients

For the kalamata dressing

1/4 cup Greek yogurt (I like full-fat yogurt)
1/4 cup kalamata olives
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/4 cup olive oil
salt to taste

For the salad

4 cups chopped iceberg lettuce (about 1/3 of a head)
4 cups chopped romaine lettuce (about 1 heart of romaine)
4 cups baby spinach
4 ounces salami, chopped
1 cucumber, peeled and diced
1 pint grape tomatoes, halved
1 14.5 ounce can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 8-ounce package cremini mushrooms, sliced (optional)
1/4 cup chopped kalamata olives
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
4 ounces mozzarella cheese, shredded (freezing the mozzarella for about 30 minutes before shredding makes this much easier)

Instructions

In a food processor, process the Greek yogurt, kalamata olives, white wine vinegar, oregano, and sugar on high until mostly smooth, scraping down the sides of the bowl frequently. Add the olive oil slowly through the pour spout with the machine running. Salt to taste. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
Toss the greens together in a large bowl. Divide between 4 salad bowls or plates. Divide the remaining ingredients among the plates. Drizzle each salad with 2 tablespoons of kalamata dressing. Serve immediately.

https://chattavore.com/chop-chop-salad/

Chop chop salad with creamy kalamata dressing is my version of the house salad from Crust Pizza, one of my very favorite restaurant salads. | recipe from Chattavore.com

Homemade Honey Mustard Dipping Sauce

November 4, 2015

Homemade honey mustard dipping sauce is an incredibly quick and simple recipe that tastes just as good as store-bought varieties!

When I was a junior in high school, I ran for senior class president (those of you who know me personally will not be surprised by the fact that I have always been driven by a crazy perfectionist competitive side). I had zero chance of winning; the office was won by the girl who had been freshman, sophomore, and junior class president. I knew I wouldn’t win, but it was kind of (kind of being the operative term) a fun experience. Anyway, the only person who gave her a run for her money was a guy whose platform was chicken nuggets and honey mustard.

I.am.not.kidding.

He was a bit of a jokester (that’s a bit of an understatement) and of course there was nothing that he could actually do about the cafeteria food, but apparently he was a big fan of the chicken nuggets and honey mustard that they served, I don’t know, maybe one day a week (I have no idea, as I lived off of the salad/nacho/baked potato bar when I wasn’t eating chips and pink icing cookies for lunch). His entire platform was more chicken nugget and honey mustard days in the cafeteria. And while I don’t think that he came close to winning, he was the clear runner-up.

For a long time, I ordered chicken tenders in just about every restaurant that I went to. Honestly, I wasn’t the typical chicken tenders and fries orderer. This was in my late teens and early twenties and I loved a variety of foods, but I wanted honey mustard. Not just any honey mustard, either. I always felt completely ripped off when I asked for honey mustard and got some cheap non-creamy variety.

I was obsessed. I would cook specific foods just for the opportunity to dip them into honey mustard. My freshman year of college, I taught my roommates how to fry chicken tenders, dredged in bread crumbs and dipped into Naturally Fresh honey mustard, which I’m pretty sure is the brand that Applebee’s used (that was my favorite).

Eventually, I needed honey mustard and didn’t have any. What I did have, though, was: honey, mustard, and mayonnaise. A little whisking and voila: honey mustard. Honestly, I think it’s even a little better than the better store-bought varieties of honey mustard that you can get next to the bagged salads at the grocery store. This homemade honey mustard is great for dipping chicken or French fries into, but it’s also a perfect sandwich spread!

Have you ever had homemade honey mustard? It’s pretty life changing!

Yield: about 3/4 cup

Honey Mustard Dipping Sauce

5 minPrep Time:

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Ingredients

1/3 cup mayonnaise
1/3 cup Dijon or spicy brown mustard
2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons honey
1/4 teaspoon paprika

Instructions

Whisk all ingredients together in a small bowl. Store in the refrigerator in a covered container or jar for up to a three days.

Notes

It is very easy to adapt this recipe to fit any quantity that you need! Just use 2 parts mayonnaise, 2 parts mustard, and 1 part honey and scale the paprika to fit the amount.

https://chattavore.com/homemade-honey-mustard-dipping-sauce/

Click here to print the recipe for honey mustard dipping sauce!

This honey mustard dipping sauce is quick and simple to make and just as delicious - if not more delicious than - any store bought honey mustard! | chattavore.com

Summer Salad with Poppy Seed Dressing and Fruit

July 10, 2015

This summer salad with poppy seed dressing also has mixed greens, fruit, and candied walnuts. It is sweet and satisfying on the hottest summer days!

There comes a time every summer, right about now when the mercury is really hitting its hottest temps (though really it’s not as hot here right now as it was a couple of weeks ago) when all I can think about eating is salad. Well, and ice cream. Always ice cream. I have sworn a solemn oath to never complain about the heat, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t like to eat foods that are cooling and don’t require me to turn on the oven and heat up the whole house.

We visited Nashville last week and our friend took us to Hattie B’s, a restaurant that serves Nashville hot chicken. It was really crowded…people love that place! We decided to take our food back to his house to eat, but he decided to eat at home (he’s a vegetarian). He made a salad with kale, avocado, and strawberries and, even though that chicken was delicious, I was seriously jealous of his salad. I started dreaming about what my perfect summer salad would contain and this is what I dreamed up.

A summer salad, in my opinion, should have fruit-berries, to be exact (with some mandarin oranges thrown in for good measure). Poppy seed dressing is the perfect complement to a fruity mixed green salad, with its sweet, salty, and “shallot-y” bite. Candied walnuts come together in less than five minutes on the stovetop and add the perfect sweet crunch, and bacon and feta add a salty accent. This summer salad was perfect on our dinner plates as well as in a Mason jar for lunch the next day. What are your favorite ingredients for a summer salad?