Classic Caesar Salad Recipe with 2-Minute Creamy Caesar Dressing

If you’ve had the pleasure of eating a Classic Caesar Salad prepared table-side at a restaurant, you know that no bottled dressing even comes close. Our 2-Minute Creamy Caesar Dressing brings this fresh tableside classic to your family dinners with ease.

We use a hand blender and it’s done in a snap! It only takes 30 seconds to blend it up and a minute or so to prep the ingredients.

This video will show you how fast it is to make this savory dressing and serve a classic Caesar salad tonight.

There are always variations, even for the classics—anchovy or no anchovy, egg or no egg, white wine Worcestershire or regular—the delicious part is finding the one that suits you.

The dressing ingredients are common pantry items except for maybe anchovies, so we’ll start there.

Embracing the Anchovy in Caesar Dressing

No, it’s not a pizza thing, it’s a food hack thing. Anchovy has long been used to bring the magic of umami to sauces, stews, dips, and dressings. One of the original Caesar salads did not include anchovy in the recipe.

The addition of anchovies came later, and in my opinion, creates the distinct depth of flavor we love about this salad.

In my experience, whole anchovies taste less intense than anchovy paste. I prefer oil-packed whole anchovies in a glass jar over canned, and choose canned over the paste. The ONLY ingredients should be anchovy, olive oil, and salt.

Tip: If you’re worried about the dressing tasting fishy, the best way to tame the anchovy is to either reduce the amount or increase the amount of lemon juice.

The egg yolk is what gives the dressing its rich, creamy texture and serves as an emulsifier (lecithin in egg yolk stabilizes the dressing, keeping it from separating).

We appreciate the health benefits of raw pastured eggs, but those avoiding raw eggs due to allergies, immune suppression or pregnancy, may want a substitute.

Quick Egg Substitutes: 1/3 cup mayonnaise, 3 tablespoons hummus, 2 tablespoons sour cream or Greek yogurt, or 1/4 cup mashed avocado.

=> To make consuming raw eggs as safe as possible, buy pasteurized eggs at the store or pasteurize your own (see the recipe for at-home pasteurizing method).

Of course, you can omit the eggs altogether for a less creamy, but still delicious dressing.

As a savvy shopper who reads ingredient labels, you already know most bottled salad dressings are not a healthy choice because of the cheap, rancid oils they use.

Our former favorite brand of Caesar dressing is an example: (ingredient list taken directly from their label)

Ingredients: Former Popular Favorite

Soybean Oil, Water, Egg Yolk, Salt, White Wine and Distilled Vinegars, Lemon Juice Concentrate, Spices (Including Mustard Seed), Parmesan Cheese (Part-Skim Milk, Cheese Culture, Salt, Enzymes), Garlic (Dehydrated), Onion (Dehydrated), Olive Oil, Xanthan Gum, Molasses, Corn Syrup, Rosemary Extract, Caramel Color, Sugar, Anchovies, Tamarind, Natural Flavors.

We gave up the bottled stuff for this healthier homemade version and are so glad we did! When we make our own, we have control over every ingredient and the flavor cannot be beat.

Healthy fats are an important part of our diet, so we use avocado oil whenever we make this recipe. We like the neutral flavor of avocado oil in salad dressing when we don’t want the added flavor of extra-virgin olive oil.

Read more about healthy fats and oils in this Healthy Mayonnaise post.