For A Different-Tasting Caesar Salad, Swap The Fish

Caesar salads are one of the most popular salads in the world — and for good reason. In a typical Caesar salad, you'll find crispy croutons and crunchy lettuce paired with a creamy, slightly tangy dressing. The finishing touches usually involve Parmesan shavings and perhaps a lean protein like grilled chicken or seared salmon. Despite its classic, timeless taste, the ingredients used to create this velvety, flavorful dressing are not quite as simple as presumed, with fish being an essential ingredient.

While a classic Caesar dressing contains ingredients like anchovies, garlic, lemon juice, egg yolk, Worcestershire sauce, olive oil, and seasonings, you can make a couple of amendments to bring out unexpected flavor. Our recommendation: swap the anchovies for sardines. Keeping fish in the recipe allows the dressing to still maintain its signature, unique flavor profile, but swapping for sardines allows for a lighter, more delicate flavor. This is because sardines tend to be much less salty, especially when dealing with canned options. For those who are particularly mindful of their salt intake, sardines are the superior choice.

Rich in umami and and bright flavors, Caesar salad dressing can be made even more delightful with a few complementary ingredients. In the same way that Kewpie mayo might be the missing ingredient in your egg salad, adding some to your Caesar dressing adds a rich, balanced flavor, with notable acidity and savoriness. Not to mention, a classic Caesar dressing already includes egg yolk, olive oil, and salt, so the recipe basically calls for deconstructed mayo as-is. You can also spruce up your dressing by using a flavored olive oil (like those in this four pack) in place of classic olive oil. These extra flavor notes blend together even better if you use these aromatics and herbs to season the croutons and protein.

If you're opting for sardines instead of classic anchovies, you can bring back some of the saltiness organically by toss in pitted olives, extra Parmesan, or salted pistachios to your salad. Up the protein content and enjoy a heartier meal by topping the salad off with marinated chicken thighs, grilled beef, or tempeh crumbles. Similarly, add your salad to a bed of pasta, couscous, or quinoa to make the dish more filling. Just remember to season your meat prior to cooking it, because proteins need to marinate to truly benefit from added seasonings. Generally proteins and greens handle seasonings differently, but there are a few exceptions. And if you're short on time, it's perfectly fine to opt for a bagged salad instead of fashioning up one from scratch. You can conveniently enjoy it on the go or as a quick workweek lunch with this bagged salad hack.