Caesar Salad with a Lighter Yoghurt-Anchovy Dressing
All the punch, a fraction of the heaviness
The classic Caesar dressing leans on egg yolk and a slick of oil, which is wonderful but undeniably rich. Here Greek yoghurt does the heavy lifting instead, keeping all the salty depth of anchovy, garlic and Parmesan while feeling far lighter on the fork. Craggy sourdough croutons, rubbed with garlic and baked until shattering, replace the usual soft cubes. Add some pan-fried chicken and you have a generous main-course salad that tastes indulgent without weighing you down.
Caesar Salad with a Lighter Yoghurt-Anchovy Dressing
Ingredients
- 2 boneless chicken breasts
- 1 tbsp olive oil, plus extra for the croutons
- 200g sourdough, torn into rough chunks
- 2 garlic cloves, 1 crushed and 1 halved
- 200g Greek yoghurt
- 6 anchovy fillets in oil, finely chopped
- 1 tbsp Dijon mustard
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
- 40g Parmesan-style hard cheese, finely grated, plus extra to serve
- 2 romaine lettuces
- Salt and black pepper
Method
- Heat the oven to 200C fan. Toss the sourdough chunks with a little olive oil and the halved garlic clove, season, and bake for 12-15 minutes until golden and crisp.
- Season the chicken breasts. Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a frying pan and cook for 6-7 minutes a side until cooked through. Rest, then slice.
- For the dressing, whisk together the yoghurt, chopped anchovies, crushed garlic, Dijon mustard, lemon juice and Worcestershire sauce.
- Stir in the grated Parmesan and loosen with a splash of cold water until it just coats the back of a spoon. Season with black pepper and a little salt.
- Separate the romaine leaves, wash and dry them well, then tear the larger ones in half.
- Toss the leaves with most of the dressing until lightly coated.
- Pile the salad onto plates and top with the sliced chicken and croutons.
- Drizzle over the remaining dressing, scatter with extra Parmesan and grind over more black pepper.
3 The Story
The Caesar salad is one of those dishes whose origin is genuinely traceable, even if the details have grown polished with retelling. It is widely credited to Caesar Cardini, an Italian-born restaurateur working in Tijuana, Mexico, in the 1920s, during the years when American visitors crossed the border to dine and drink freely. The story usually told is that the salad was improvised from whatever was to hand on a busy night, assembled and tossed at the table for a touch of theatre. Whatever the exact circumstances, the salad spread quickly into the United States and then around the world.
The original was strikingly simple: romaine, croutons, a coddled egg, lemon, oil, Worcestershire sauce, garlic and grated cheese, the leaves left whole to be picked up by hand. Anchovies, now considered essential by most cooks, may not have featured in the very first versions, their savoury note arriving instead through the Worcestershire sauce, which itself contains fermented anchovy. Over time the chopped fillets crept directly into the dressing, deepening its character, and the salad acquired the creamy, almost mayonnaise-like consistency many people now expect.
That richness is exactly what this version reconsiders. Greek yoghurt, thick and tangy from straining, stands in for the emulsion of egg and oil. It brings its own gentle acidity, which works neatly alongside the lemon, and it carries the anchovy, garlic and cheese just as faithfully as the classic base, only with a fresher, lighter finish. A spoonful of Dijon helps it cling to the leaves. The aim is not to reinvent the flavour but to lighten its texture, so the dressing still tastes unmistakably of Caesar.
The croutons earn their place too. Sourdough, torn rather than diced, bakes into irregular pieces with plenty of craggy edges that crisp deeply, and rubbing the bread with raw garlic before it goes into the oven perfumes every bite. Adding chicken is an entirely modern habit, unknown to Cardini but now so common that many diners assume it was always part of the recipe; it turns a starter into a satisfying lunch or supper. Season as you go, dry the leaves thoroughly so the dressing grips, and dress the salad only just before serving to keep that essential crunch.
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