This Lime Caesar dressing recipe is fun and perfectly fresh! It’s way better than store-bought and is made in a pinch with just a few ingredients. Plus, our version has a tropical lime twist.
Is there any salad that’s more versatile than a caesar salad? I absolutely adore a good caesar salad, and I feel it’s the perfect salad for any occasion. Cold soup weather and need a fresh salad? Caesar salad. Sitting on a humid beach smelling the sea and eating grilled shrimp? Caesar salad. It’s been raining too much and you need a cheer me up? Caesar salad.
Seriously. Could a salad be more perfect than a caesar salad? Probably not.
Except, I’ve been feeling nostalgic from our recent trip to Florida, and wanted to incorporate a tropical, Tommy Bahama-esque vibe to the traditional Caesar salad dressing by swapping the traditional lemon with lime. So, we’re doing a Lime Caesar Dressing Recipe that incorporates lime!
Follow along for our fun variation on the classic Caesar dressing that incorporates lime.
The Ingredients for Caesar salad Dressing:
- 2-4 garlic cloves
- 1/2 can of anchovies, drained
- 1/4 cup of olive oil
- ½ teaspoon dijon mustard
- 1 lime – juiced
- 1 egg
- 1/4 cup of shredded parmesan
- 2 tablespoons of grated parmesan
- 1/4 cup of asiago cheese
The Supplies:
- Mortar! Not necessary, but helpful. I recently purchased this one and it’s great! Easy to wash and use.
- Or, a food processor to whip the ingredients together in a few seconds. Creates a creamier dressing. Love the food processor – I don’t use it often for recipes, but when I need it, it comes in really, really handy.
- Anchovies. I LOVE this brand because they do as much as they can to minimize the effect of fishing on the ocean and they strive to be as sustainable as possible. To find out more information about eco-eating ocean food, check out the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s informational downloads.
The Basics:
The steps to making this dressing are pretty fool-proof.
You’ll want a few bowls. One smaller bowl to mash up the anchovies and garlic, creating a type of paste. And another large bowl for mixing the ingredients together. I like using a postal and mortar for the anchovies; it yields a pretty thick paste. If I don’t have a mortar, then I chop the anchovies and garlic up into tiny, small pieces.
In your smaller bowl, add anchovies and mash them.
Once the anchovies have been turned into a paste, you can add your garlic and mash it together. Next, add the lime juice.
In a separate bowl add the anchovy paste and mix it with the oil, egg, lime, and mustard. Last, gently add the cheese and stir to combine. Keep this in the fridge, and because of the raw egg, I suggest eating it immediately.
And voila! You have your dressing! Since the recipe contains the raw egg, I like to eat it within 24 hours.
Of course, as a second option, you can toss all the oil, garlic, anchovies, mustard, and lime juice in a food processor. Pulse until combined, and then add the cheese and pulse until you get the consistency you like. The texture is slightly smoother than if you don’t process it, but equally as good.
A Few Mentions:
Interesting enough, the Caesar salad has a fun history! And no, it was not invented by Julias Caesar and it was not debuted in New York (like I thought). Rather, Caesar salad is an invention of an Italian chef, who landed in California in the early 20th century. One evening, when he was running low on ingredients, he whipped together eggs, croutons, cheese and – voila – the dressing came to be. Here’s a fun article if you want to read more about the history of the Caesar salad.
A Few Notes:
Cheese! Let’s talk cheese. I like the mixture of parmesan and asiago cheeses, and feel they lend a nutty flavor to the dressing. Additionally, I like the using a mixture of shredded and grated Parmesan because I feel the grated Parmesan helps thicken up the dressing.
Worcestershire Sauce or not? A lot of Caesar Dressing Recipes call for this; however, this isn’t something I typically have in my fridge. I opted to omit it, but feel free to add half a teaspoon to mix you’re mixing the ingredient.
Creamy? If you like your salad dressing creamy, you can always add 1 tablespoon of mayonnaise to get a creamier texture. It’s preference.
Squeamish about raw eggs? Be sure to use pasteurized or a super fresh egg, to minimize your chances of getting ill. Because I don’t like to mess around with food and food poisoning, check out this link for more information on eating raw eggs.
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