"No Eggy Here" Caesar Salad...

I love salads and am always looking for different ideas to try or ingredients to center a salad around. If you can't tell, I get bored easily with food and, like in my life, I embrace change! 

I once ran across this neat cookbook called "The Twelve Months of Monastery Salads"... sounds celestial right? It's a really cool and lovely cookbook...you should check it out at your local library or purchase it for your permanent cookbook library (I included a pic below). 

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They have a ton of recipes for each month, based on seasonal produce. They also have a wonderful list of salad dressings...which is where I stumbled upon this Caesar salad dressing recipe. So I took their dressing recipe, modified it a bit and added to my salad ingredients to make my version of a healthy Caesar salad. 

"No Eggy Here" Caesar Salad:

Dressing

• 1/2 cup of EVOO (extra virgin olive oil)
• 3 tbsp of Red Wine Vinegar (don't skimp on the vinegar... the better vinegar, the better your dressing)
• 1 tbsp of fresh lemon juice
• 1 tsp Dijon Mustard
• Secret Ingredient - Smoked Tabasco Sauce (or regular would be fine also) - the recipe in the book only calls for 1/4 tsp tabasco sauce, but we ended up using close to 1 tbsp...I'm not a huge spice fan but using more gives it a zing and to me, brings it even closer to the Caesar salad taste

Salad Mix

• However much Lettuce you want to eat - Any lettuce would work, Romaine is always nice to have in your salad since it's a little sturdier and holds dressing nicely. I used some Romaine in mine along with some other varieties that I had on hand
• 1 small Red Onion, thinly sliced
• Blue Cheese crumbles (however much you like)
• Grated Parmesan (however much you like - I'm somewhat generous with my cheeses since I love cheese)
• Chopped Celery (add an additional nice crunch)
• (Optional) Pepitas/Pumpkin seeds (adds a nice mild nuttiness flavor)
• Croutons (try to make your own, if you have a great baker nearby, try some fancier bread like olive bread, rosemary, etc...cut it up into cubes, spray with some olive oil, sprinkle a little bit of parm and bake in the oven until dry and golden)
• Chopped up Celery (optional - adds an additional nice crunch)
• Wash your lettuce (easiest is to place in a large bowl with water, rinse then drain...the dirt will fall to the bottom in the bowl). Drain lettuce then dry as much water off the lettuce as possible. If you have a spinner use it, if not, I'd recommend buying a small one it's well worth it. Chop up the lettuce. The secret to making a good salad is to get the leaves as dry as possible...the drier the leaves, the more the dressing will stick to the leaves.
• While you are preparing the lettuce, pour the dressing in your large salad bowl and place the thinly sliced onion in the dressing to marinade.
• Once the lettuce is ready, place in the bowl. Add the chopped celery, sprinkle the cheeses and pumpkin seeds on (if using) and croutons. Pour the dressing over and toss until everything is coated with the dressing. 

You are ready to have a delicious, fresh salad. It's great to serve along with some nice warm bread (olive, rosemary, etc) and a glass of nice white wine or cold iced lemon water. Enjoy!