The Best Light Caesar Dressing

Who needs to buy bottled dressings when you can make Light Caesar Dressing at home in just about 5 minutes? Easy and delicious!

Before I get too deep into the recipe process, I thought I’d just lay it all out there: this is honestly the BEST caesar dressing I’ve ever had, regardless of being light or not. I really see reason to order this out anymore. It really rivals my Asian Peanut Dressing and The Best Light Ranch Dressing as my my all-time favorite.

So, let’s dive in. To anchovy or not to anchovy? I might as well address the elephant in the room first. People have very strong opinions about this, and I get it. I personally love anchovies, but I totally get that they’re not for everyone. For that reason, I’ll give you a couple of options.

Creating Depth of Flavor

If you’re afraid to use whole anchovies in your dressing, you’ll still need to supplement with an ingredient that has a deep, salty, umami flavor. Otherwise, it’s just not really a Caesar dressing. I experimented with a lot of different options, and here’s what worked for me, ranked in order of taste.

• Anchovy Paste: This really does taste the best, and buying it as a paste in a tube is a good way to ensure that it will last a while in your refrigerator if you don’t use anchovies often. I promise that this doesn’t make the dressing taste fishy–just really complex.
• Fish Sauce: If I could avoid it, I wanted to find a dupe that I already have around. After rummaging around in my pantry, I thought I’d try this out. If you do a lot of cooking with Asian flavors, like I do, you probably have it around, too. If not, pick up a bottle in the Asian foods section of your grocery store. It will be cheaper than anchovies and last longer. Plus, you can use it for other recipes, like Pad Thai or Thai Coconut Curry Soup (recipes coming soon!). And the best part is that I really couldn’t tell much of a difference between this and the anchovy paste

• Extra Worcestershire Sauce: If you’re still not sold on the “fishy” ingredient options, you can just add more Worcestershire sauce. It won’t have quite the depth of flavor, but it will still be REALLY good Light Caesar Dressing.

Making Croutons

A proper Caesar Salad needs croutons. Of course, you can buy some at the store, but since I’m already going through the trouble to make my own dressing with real, whole ingredients, I thought I’d do the same with the salad toppings.

All I did was preheat my oven to 375 degrees, then cut my favorite low-point bread, Milton’s Thin Sliced Whole Wheat, into chunks. Spray with nonstick cooking spray, then season with salt and pepper and bake until crispy, about 5-10 minutes depending on how small you cut them. Since 1 slice of bread is only 1 Freestyle SmartPoint, I get a good amount of croutons for 1 SP.

Beyond Lettuce

One of my favorite meals of all time it a Chicken Caesar Salad, so I’ve been making them a lot with this dressing. A local restaurant around here even puts bacon in their Chicken Caesar, so I’ve been doing that as well. Salmon or shrimp would also be delicious instead of chicken.

But you don’t need to think just salad or this. It’s so creamy and tangy that it makes a great marinade for chicken or fish. You could even use it as a binder for breaded chicken. Or toss it with some cooked potatoes for a light take on potato salad.

I hope you love this recipe as much as we do! If you make it, be sure to tag me on Instagram or Facebook (@litecravings) and use the hashtag #litecravingsrecipes. I sometimes miss a tag here or there, but I always check in on the hashtag. And don’t forget to add the image to your Pinterest boards!