Caesar Sauce
What is Caesar “sauce?” You mean Caesar dressing… as in, Caesar salad? Or is this some kind of dipping sauce? And does it have anything to do with dill? Yes, all three! This is an all-purpose, HEALTHY, creamy, herby, Caesar-esque sauce for dressing salad, for dipping vegetables, and, yes, even for chicken wings. And it has become a weeknight meal staple in this house.
How can sauce be the centerpiece of a weeknight dinner?
Keep reading…
///Update: If you are looking for a more traditional Caesar dressing recipe, you can find it here.
There are several core, buy-every-time-I’m-at-the-grocery-store ingredients in my kitchen. 0% (non-fat) plain Greek Yogurt is one of them. I eat a ton of it, mostly in homemade breakfast parfaits. Chobani, Fage, or Whole Foods brand will do. But most importantly, it serves two unique purposes: (1) It doubles as sour cream. That’s right. Anywhere you would put sour cream (chili, baked potato, sweet potato, quesadillas), just lop on a dollop of Greek yogurt instead; (2) It serves as the base for creamy sauces like this one.
Homemade Caesar dressing is delicious, especially when made with a non-fat base like Greek yogurt as opposed to Mayonnaise. With a few alterations, you can easily turn this into a dill sauce for dipping (which pairs phenomenally well with carrots or drizzled on baked potatoes). So take this where you want to take it with customizations following the base outlined below. And if you come up with something that you like, please share it in the comments section!
(local flat iron steak from the Whiffletree Farm meat CSA)
This sauce is integral to my mission to re-imagine the American weeknight dinner, a la Michael Pollan and Dan Barber. Simply put, putting meat at the center of every meal is not a good thing – not good for our bodies, not natural, and, most importantly, not good for the greater food system and its sustainability over time… our sustainability over time. Both Pollan and Barber state it more eloquently than I ever could, so for a quick dose of this philosophy, I recommend Season 1, Episode 2 of Chef’s Table on Netflix.
Telling World War II era Americans not to eat steak and potatoes is about as American as communism. But let’s not make it about our politics or our cultural identity. Let’s make it about our relationship with food and how, worldwide, it has gone astray. Food is highly commoditized, commercialized, and over-engineered. And our relationship with it is a product of convenience, indulgence, and excellent marketing (did you know that there is a sugar lobby right here in Washington, DC?!).
So what can we do? How can we fix it? First and foremost, vote with our feet. Explore Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) in the local area. The Northern Virginia area has several and mine is, proudly, Potomac Vegetable Farms with a Whiffletree Farm meat share (supplemented by periodic trips to the Spring House Farm). And patronize truly local farm-to-table restaurants (The Restaurant at Patowmac Farm and Field & Main, you rock my world… even Fiola DC has allowed COVID to take it in a new farm-centric direction).
Potomac Vegetable Farms works in concert with many smaller farms nearby (it has meat, poultry, and eggs, not just vegetables). Using a CSA not only supports local farms but it forces us to eat more seasonally – more naturally – as opposed to running to the store for an imported ingredient anytime we want to make a dish. You’ll make tomato soup in the summer because that is when tomatoes are abundant. And guess what? Those tomatoes will taste SO much better. While CSAs typically require payment up front, they average out to the equivalent of store-bought groceries… because produce isn’t expensive; packaged food items are. Just be flexible and focus on your store-bought staples (like yogurt, in my case), letting the CSA contents drive the menu for the week. And don’t be afraid to put a baked potato, a sweet potato, or a Portobello mushroom at the center of your weeknight plate.
hmm… I got a TON of carrots this week… how will I use all these carrots?! Hey, I know a food blog for that… 😉🥕
what you need
> > > Base
1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt
1/2 cup finely grated parmesan cheese (Reggiano is best)
2 table spoons olive oil
1 garlic clove (raw or roasted)
Salt & black pepper to taste
> > For Caesar
2 teaspoons anchovy paste
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
(optional) dash of Worcestershire sauce
> > For dipping sauce
1 tablespoon dried dill (or 2 tablespoons fresh dill)
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Sweet Hungarian paprika, to top
how to make it
For either variation, place all ingredients in high-speed blender (this is my favorite 3-in-1) and combine.
The thickness will largely depend on the consistency of your yogurt (for example, Chobani is thinner where Fage makes a much thicker yogurt). Most often, the sauce will be too thick and require thinning. This can be done with water, milk (non-dairy like cashew, macadamia, or oat is fine), or by adding extra lemon juice and olive oil.
Feel free to play with the amounts. Anchovy paste is one of the key ingredients to authentic Caesar dressing (but then, so is egg, if not in the sauce, in the salad itself). So if you like to anchovy it up, by all means. This recipe is tuned to my taste, with extra parmesan. I will also usually be heavy handed with the dill if making the sauce variation.
You can also roast the garlic clove in tinfoil for 10 minutes on 350 to deepen the garlic flavor.
Top either dressing or sauce with a sprinkle of paprika.
This sauce is integral to my mission to re-imagine the American weeknight dinner, a la Michael Pollan and Dan Barber. Simply put, putting meat at the center of every meal is not a good thing – not good for our bodies, not natural, and, most importantly, not good for the greater food system and its sustainability over time… our sustainability over time. Both Pollan and Barber state it more eloquently than I ever could, so for a quick dose of this philosophy, I recommend Season 1, Episode 2 of Chef’s Table on Netflix.
Telling World War II era Americans not to eat steak and potatoes is about as American as communism. But let’s not make it about our politics or our cultural identity. Let’s make it about our relationship with food and how, worldwide, it has gone astray. Food is highly commoditized, commercialized, and over-engineered. And our relationship with it is a product of convenience, indulgence, and excellent marketing (did you know that there is a sugar lobby right here in Washington, DC?!).
So what can we do? How can we fix it? First and foremost, vote with our feet. Explore Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) in the local area. The Northern Virginia area has several and mine is, proudly, Potomac Vegetable Farms with a Whiffletree Farm meat share (supplemented by periodic trips to the Spring House Farm). And patronize truly local farm-to-table restaurants (The Restaurant at Patowmac Farm and Field & Main, you rock my world… even Fiola DC has allowed COVID to take it in a new farm-centric direction).
Potomac Vegetable Farms works in concert with many smaller farms nearby (it has meat, poultry, and eggs, not just vegetables). Using a CSA not only supports local farms but it forces us to eat more seasonally – more naturally – as opposed to running to the store for an imported ingredient anytime we want to make a dish. You’ll make tomato soup in the summer because that is when tomatoes are abundant. And guess what? Those tomatoes will taste SO much better. While CSAs typically require payment up front, they average out to the equivalent of store-bought groceries… because produce isn’t expensive; packaged food items are. Just be flexible and focus on your store-bought staples (like yogurt, in my case), letting the CSA contents drive the menu for the week. And don’t be afraid to put a baked potato, a sweet potato, or a Portobello mushroom at the center of your weeknight plate.
hmm… I got a TON of carrots this week… how will I use all these carrots?! Hey, I know a food blog for that… 😉🥕
