Caesar purists, stay calm. This salad from the historic Blackberry Farm resort in Walland, Tennessee has plenty in common with the classic you know and love—both in key ingredients and in feisty-bright-creamy-garlicky experience—but it also diverges, quite a lot.
We’re still going to call it Caesar, and it’s so good you should make it even if we called it Chuck.
Because brawny Caesar ingredients like lemon, garlic, and Worcestershire inevitably still zing through (how could they not?), but are softened with the addition of Green Goddess-style freshness (in tarragon, chives, and lemon zest).
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And while the ingredient list may look longer than your average Caesar, everything fluffs together near-instantly in a food processor, spinning into a smooth, creamy-green elixir, ready to pour on anything you choose.
But in particular: You are to pour it on zoodles—a.k.a. raw matchsticks of zucchini that resemble, arguably, a noodle. While the watery green crunch of Romaine lettuce (and celery, if you’re my dad) has always been an excellent foil for a creamy, pushy dressing, so too is the zoodle.
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Top Comment:
“I am eating raw eggs every time I order a caesar salad in a restaurant). I lie to myself. But to make this in my kitchen, I can't put a raw egg in that dressing. Is there any substitute for the raw egg that might work? Some olive oil or something? I dunno... Thanks for any suggestions, and thanks for posting this recipe!”
It’s fresh in a more subdued way, with a pale resilience, and substantial enough to be lunch. Just a thin blanket of dressing is enough to find yourself eating a whole lot of zucchini, which is handy because that seems to be how zucchini comes.
The last flourish is a cheese crisp, or frico—and the one step that makes this not a completely no-heat recipe. But I don’t recommend skipping it, no matter how sweaty you feel.
Because for the effort of grating cheese in piles and baking it for 5 minutes, you get the fanciest-looking and most addictive of garnishes: its salty, lacy bite snipping and snapping against the glossy, soft, and bouncy salad. Caesar purists, have I swayed you to the dark side yet?
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh chives, plus more for garnish
1/8 teaspoon kosher salt, or to taste
Cheese crisps and salad:
3/4 cup finely grated Pecorino Toscano, Singing Brook, or Ossau-Iraty cheese (1 1/2 ounces)
3 medium zucchini
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3/4 cup finely grated Pecorino Toscano, Singing Brook, or Ossau-Iraty cheese (1 1/2 ounces)
3 medium zucchini
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Photos by Julia Gartland
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I'm an ex-economist, lifelong-Californian who moved to New York to work in food media in 2007, before returning to the land of Dutch Crunch bread and tri-tip barbecues in 2020. Dodgy career choices aside, I can't help but apply the rational tendencies of my former life to things like: recipe tweaking, digging up obscure facts about pizza, and deciding how many pastries to put in my purse for "later."
True confession: I only made the cheese crisps. Deliciousness (and ease!) vouched for. I love caesar salads though so will report back once I've made it too.
Hello! This recipe sounds amazing--I love caesar salad, in its purist form and in a divergent form--I'm not a caesar snob. I am not, however, a fan of eating raw eggs (I know, I know... I am eating raw eggs every time I order a caesar salad in a restaurant). I lie to myself. But to make this in my kitchen, I can't put a raw egg in that dressing. Is there any substitute for the raw egg that might work? Some olive oil or something? I dunno... Thanks for any suggestions, and thanks for posting this recipe!
Hi Terri—I think you could just leave the yolk out, and it should still emulsify nicely because of the mustard, and will just be a little less creamy. No big deal. Or you could use the yolk from a pasteurized or even soft-cooked egg, or like in this dressing: https://food52.com/recipes/37034-eric-korsh-s-farm-lettuces-salad-with-dill-vinaigrette
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