I have never liked croutons on Caesar salad. I never saw the point of those overly crunchy, salty, chunks of stale bread. So, making a paleo Caesar salad without them was easy: some homemade bacon bits add a lovely little bit of salty crunch and add alot more flavor than stale bread ever does! My big challenge with this salad was making a creamy dressing flavorful enough that you don’t miss the typical buttermilk or sour cream and parmesan cheese ingredients (although, if you follow a primal or lacto-paleo diet, you could still top this salad with some coarse grated parmesan, but it isn’t necessary). I had a very tough crowd to please in my husband, because Caesar salad is his all-time favorite. But, I finally got it right. This is delicious as a side dish or with grilled chicken or shrimp added to make it a dinner salad. Serves 4-5 as a side salad or 2 as a dinner salad.
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 0 minutes
Serves: 4-5
Ingredients:
- 1/3 cup paleo mayo
- 2 Tbsp Fresh Lemon Juice (or a good bottled Lemon Juice
) - 1 small garlic clove, crushed
- 1 tsp Natural Anchovy Paste
- 1/8 tsp cracked Pepper, to taste
- 1 Small Head Romaine Lettuce (or a large Romaine Heart)
- 4-5 slices of uncured or natural, nitrite-free bacon
)
, to taste1. Fry bacon in a frying pan (or bake in the oven) until crisp. Drain on paper towel. When cool, break into small pieces.
2. Whisk paleo mayo, lemon juice, crushed garlic, anchovy paste and pepper together.
3. Tear or chop romaine lettuce into large bite-size pieces. Wash and dry (use a Salad Spinner
or paper towels).
4. Toss lettuce with dressing until evenly coated. Top with bacon and more cracked pepper, to taste. Enjoy!
Jamie says
This looks yummy! I will have to try this!
Stephanie says
How is the egg yolk in the mayo subbed for AIP?
PS I’ve been perusing your website every chance I get! Love it!
ThePaleoMom says
Sorry. That salad really shouldn’t have been in the AIP section. Egg yols are one of the foods that most people can reintroduce, but until that point, there isn’t a good substitute.
Kristin W. says
Yup! Was missing my caeser dressing since going Paleo….loved this!!! My kids loved it also. I served ours with pine nuts on top. Yum! Thank you for a great recipe!
Jen says
question, is there any way to make this in large amounts? i wanna make a big batch so i can just grab it from the fridge in one of my squeeze bottles and be able to have ceasar salad quickly. same question for the mayo. does it translate when you mae large amounts or do you have to make small amounts multiple times
ThePaleoMom says
You can definitely scale up, but it doesn’t keep more than about a week.
Morgan says
Would it be okay to use 1 tsp. fish sauce in place of the anchovy paste?
ThePaleoMom says
It would be a different flavor but probably still good.
Erin says
Truly excellent salad! My 4.5 year old ate a huge bowl of it, plus he ate an anchovy fillet too!
Kathleen says
My 3 and 5 yr old kids love anchovies too! So strange- I hated them till my 30s.
thismomisabasketcase says
This is so yummy! It’s my favourite dressing and every time I looked in the store, all the bottles had some kind of sugar/sweetener. I was glad to find this recipe. I added some asiago cheese to it for a little kick and it turned out very nice! Thanks!
Janice hopkins says
I love your recipes! Will these be included in your new cookbook? I keep printing them, but would love to have them in an easy-to-use cookbook! :))
Tamar England says
The Paleo Approach Cookbook will contain over 100 AIP (auto immune protocol) recipes. You can read more abut the cookbook here: https://www.thepaleomom.com/about-the-paleo-mom/the-paleo-approach-cookbook —- Tamar, Sarah’s assistant
jerry king says
Sure hope all the recipes you post stress in the cookbook coming out? Been printing the posts as we fix them, collecting quite a stack of paper. Cookbook already pre-ordered.
Tamar England says
The Paleo Approach Cookbook will contain over 100 AIP recipes, most of which are new and not on the blog. You can read more about the specific types of recipes that will be in the cookbook here: https://www.thepaleomom.com/about-the-paleo-mom/the-paleo-approach-cookbook — Tamar, Sarah’s assistant
susan says
I add some of my lemon garlic chicken to this and voila a meal 🙂
Nikki says
My daughter can’t have eggs. What would you suggest?
Christina Feindel says
You can read about egg subs here: https://www.thepaleomom.com/2012/11/the-science-and-art-of-paleofying-part-2-binders.html – Christina, Sarah’s assistant
shelley says
this is all new to me but am so happy to see it.I suffer with arthritis&it would surely do me good to get into this-God bless you&
thanx
Amanda says
Can’t wait to try this. Question though…. I don’t use a lot of anchovy paste so I end up wasting a tube. Do you think it would freeze alright? Maybe if I froze it in an ice cube tray and then into freezer bags?
Christina Feindel says
I haven’t tried it, but I don’t see why not. – Christina, Sarah’s assistant
Amanda says
Thanks! I figure its worth a try any way. 🙂
Sarah says
This recipe is the best! I use a few dashes of garlic powder instead of a fresh clove in a pinch and since my homemade mayo is lemony, I can often skip the lemon juice too! Great recipe, I make it at least once a week and top with some pine nuts.
Diane Cressy says
If you want a taste of Parmesan cheese without the parm you can use Nutritional yeast.. if that is allowed?? I found this great stuff when I was searching for answers and tried going Vegan for 4 mos.. Really good stuff!
15 Paleo Breakfast Bars says
No doubt I’ll be making this for lunch today!
18 Insanely Delicious Paleo Salad Dressing says
[…] Paleo Caesar Dressing from The Paleo Mom […]
Jana Brown says
The dressing in the bomb. We make this about once a week when our romaine lettuce is ready.
Paleo Caesar Salad | Paleo Recipes Cookbook says
[…] Paleo Caesar Dressing from The Paleo Mom […]