This Greek yogurt Caesar dressing is a breeze to whip up and a great alternative if you don't want to make the dressing the traditional way with raw eggs. Tangy and creamy, you will be sitting down to a plate of Caesar salad in no time!
I always enjoy a good Caesar salad...
..and the dressing always includes some core ingredients like anchovies and raw eggs.
For me to make it at home, however, I'm not so comfortable with the raw egg idea.
I'm fine eating it at restaurants where they make fresh Caesar dressing, complete with raw eggs...
...but for me, at home, I think I'll go the safer route...
...and use Greek yogurt!
It's Not Just For Breakfast
Besides being incredibly healthy to eat on its own, Greek yogurt is not just for breakfast. You can make bagels, cornbread, breadsticks, pizza crust...all with Greek yogurt! It is a versatile ingredient for so many things and homemade Caesar dressing is no exception!
Keep in mind that I'm not claiming this to be an authentic Caesar dressing recipe, but it's a great alternative if you don't want to use raw eggs.
Once you've got your Greek yogurt, everything comes together quite quickly. As I mentioned above, a must-have ingredient for Caesar dressing is anchovies, and you should be able to find jars or tubes of anchovy paste in the grocery store. Alternatively, you can go old-school and buy a tin of anchovies and mince up a couple pieces yourself.
The remaining ingredients are dijon mustard, Worcestershire sauce, extra-virgin olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, salt and pepper. It looks like quite the mess when you first dump it all into a bowl, but give it a good whisk and it whips up into a nice creamy texture. Last, but not least, comes the Parmesan cheese...another must for Caesar salads. Adjust the seasonings according to taste.
It's Not Just for Salads
Caesar dressing is obviously used for Caesar salad...but it can actually do more than that!
Add a flavor boost to your sandwiches by spreading some on your bread slices instead of using mayonnaise. It's got the same sort of function as mayonnaise, but with more taste.
Spread it on buns for extra delicious homemade burgers.
Scoop some into a small dish and use it for dipping veggies, chicken nuggets, sausages, or fish sticks!
If you want to stay on the salad route, use it to dress other salads aside from the usual bed of Romaine lettuce. Serve it with a chunky Cobb salad or drizzle some on a wedge salad. I know these salads usually use very specific dressings to their recipes, but there's nothing to say you can't also just use some of the homemade Caesar dressing you've got on hand!
Ready When You Are
This recipe makes approximately 1 ½ cups of dressing, which I store in a glass jar in the fridge for whenever I want to have a Caesar salad. Like having any bottled or jarred dressing in the fridge, all I need to do is pull it out and mix some into some freshly Romaine lettuce. The only difference is the dressing is homemade!
And even if you don't have any ready in the fridge, this recipe is so easy that you can easily whip up a batch while dinner is cooking! I do it all the time!
Top it with some extra freshly grated Parmesan to keep it simple (croutons are always welcome, but optional), or add on some grilled chicken or shrimp to make it more of a meal. It also goes great with my Gluten-Free Parmesan Garlic Breadsticks or Gluten-Free Parmesan Sage Focaccia.
And if you're looking for more great recipes that use Greek yogurt, check out my Crazy Good Gluten-Free Banana Bread, Easy Amazing Gluten-Free Pizza Crust, Ridiculously Easy Homemade Bagels, or my Easy Gluten-Free Cornbread...to name just a few!
If you want to make Caesar salads at home, but don't want to buy a bottle of ready-made dressing...AND you don't want to deal with raw eggs, give this recipe a try! I make it all the time and love how easy it is to whip up a Caesar salad for lunch, or to go alongside an entree for dinner!
~ Lisa.
Greek Yogurt Caesar Salad Dressing
Ingredients
- 1 cup plain Greek full-fat yogurt
- 2 tbs extra-virgin olive oil
- 4 tsp Worcestershire sauce
- Juice of ½ lemon
- 2 tsp dijon mustard
- 2 tsp anchovy paste (or 2 anchovy filets, finely minced)
- 1 garlic clove grated or finely minced
- ¾ tsp salt
- ½ tsp black pepper
- ½ cup fresh grated Parmesan cheese
Instructions
- Whisk together all ingredients except Parmesan cheese.
- Stir in Parmesan cheese. Adjust salt and pepper and seasonings as necessary to taste.
- Keeps for about 1 week in a jar in the refrigerator.
Notes
- I used full-fat Greek yogurt, but this recipe should also work with low-fat versions.
- If you don't want to use anchovies or can't find them, capers also work. Just make sure to mince them finely before stirring into the dressing.
- Fish sauce is also a perfectly good stand-in if you do not have anchovies or capers on-hand.
- Stir Caesar dressing before adding to lettuce.
- Also makes a nice dip for veggies, chicken nuggets, or fish sticks.
- Spread it on bread slices to give a flavor boost to your sandwiches.
- Spread it on buns for your homemade burgers.
Nutrition
**This post was originally published on April 22nd, 2018, but was republished on June 21st, 2020 with new photos, instructional photos, and writing.
Dressing is delicious. Any idea about the caloric value?
Thanks, Kathy! I'm so glad you like it! I entered the ingredients into MyFitnessPal's website and based on the recipe yielding about 8 servings, there are about 125 calories per serving. This is all approximate, though, and you can certainly try entering the ingredients into another calorie calculator.
Wonderful recipe Lisa! Always good to have an egg-free option for recipes like this (though I personally don't usually avoid raw eggs). Yogurt is a wonderful idea, and great for that tangy hit. I saw your comment to another reader about swapping capers for anchovies, and I think that's a great idea. I like anchovies myself, but I know they're really a love-it-or-loathe-it kind of ingredient, so it's great to have the option. Cheers!
Caesar salad is my favourite salad this summer! So this dressing is great to have on hand, thanks.
This is just perfect...would love to try this out..perhaps minus the anchovies though!
A reader used capers instead of anchovies and she said they worked perfectly. So you might consider giving those a try!
What a perfect dressing for summer salads! I love that you used yoghurt in this one!
Thanks, Vanessa!
Finally tried it...turned out delicious with the capers and family loved it! Used it for a butter leaf lettuce salad with lots of veggies. It would be great as a dip too!!
So glad it worked out with the capers, Seema! I'll add that to the notes in the recipe! Thanks for letting me know!
Can’t wait to try this! Any substitute for anchovies?
Hi Seema! Hmmm...you need something salty that also gives the dressing that deeper taste, or umami. I looked it up myself and one plausible substitution might be finely minced olives and capers. If you try it, let me know how it turns out!
Thanks! Will try soon!