Our Best Pesto Caesar Salad Recipe
A classic Caesar salad has almost everything we love. Normally the unctuous lemon dressing is a standalone, but since we want to eat pesto in everything during the summertime, we added a small scoop of pesto to our Caesar Salad Dressing. This salad is great with any grilled meat–you can peruse Our Best Grilled Chicken Recipes or the 30 Best Grill Recipes for ideas.
Ingredients You’ll Need For Pesto Caesar Salad
Classic Caesar dressing – egg yolks, anchovy filets, garlic cloves, roughly chopped, lemon juice, and a neutral oil
Pesto – ¼ cup of store bought or Homemade Pesto Dressing
For the salad – romaine lettuce, finely grated Parmesan cheese, shredded rotisserie chicken, Castelvetrano olives, Homemade Croutons
How to Make Homemade Pesto Caesar Salad
Make the dressing. You’ll need a tall wide mouth mason jar and an immersion blender. Add the egg yolks, anchovies, garlic, salt, and1 tablespoon of the lemon juice. Blend the dressing in the jar, about 30 seconds. Continue blending and gradually pour in the oil, being sure to keep the blender flat on the bottom of the jar. Slowly lift the blender up to incorporate the remaining oil. Add the remaining lemon juice, pepper, and pesto, then blend until combined.
Make the salad. In a large bowl toss the lettuce with the dressing along with half of the grated Parmesan cheese, chicken, and olives. Top with the remaining Parmesan, croutons, and pepper to taste.
How to Store Pesto Caesar Salad + Tips
Since romaine lettuce is quite hardy, the dressed salad can withstand a couple of days as leftovers in the fridge. While you can easily freeze pesto alone, we wouldn’t recommend freezing any other parts of this salad.
Castelvetrano olives are amongst our favorites. They’re meaty and mild, and less salty than most olives, they are great for snacking and perfect for this caesar salad. Castelvetrano olives are amongst our favorites. They’re meaty and mild, and less salty than most olives, they are great for snacking and perfect for this caesar salad. You can find them in our Baked Cod with Parsley Olive Tapenade and Salami, Jalapeño & Olive Pizza with Honey.
On rotisserie chicken: Using shredded rotisserie chicken is an easy shortcut, but if you feel like grilling chicken or have other chicken leftovers to use, go for it!
On pesto: We call for a small amount in this recipe, which is ideal for using up leftover homemade pesto you might have lingering in the fridge. If you have pesto from the store, that works great too! Perhaps you made our One Pot Pesto Chicken and Rice and have some leftover pesto to use–this is the time!
More Great Salad Recipes From The Modern Proper
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