Lightly charred romaine, crispy grilled bread, even the lemon get tossed on the bbq and all come together to make this Grilled Caesar salad. Our new favorite salad of the summer, all topped off with fresh parmesan and a zesty caesar dressing (egg free!).
Summer Grilling Recipes
Temperatures are heating up as we enter the middle to the summer season. When it starts getting warm, one of our favorite things to do is fire up the grill for dinner.
Some of our favorites to toss on the grill include –
This Grilled Caesar Salad recipe is one of our first recipes on this site for a grilled salad!
How to Grill Caesar Salad
Our love for a really good Caesar salad runs deep. That unmistakable taste of crispy romaine, salty parmesan, crunchy croutons all tossed with that zesty caesar dressing.
It was really hot one day so we decided to try our hand at creating a caesar on the bbq outside. The end results were fantastic!
The ingredients you’ll need for the salad are the same as the traditional –
- romaine lettuce
- sliced bread of your choice to make croutons
- lemon
- a bit of olive oil
Prepping the Salad Ingredients
We recommend getting everything ready to grill before you begin since it all cooks pretty quickly.
Start by slicing the romaine hearts in half lengthwise and drizzling the cut surface with a little olive oil. Not too much oil or the lettuce will get soggy. Just a little drizzle so it doesn’t stick to the grill and gets a little char.
Take your bread and cut into 1/4 inch thick slices. Drizzle each side with olive oil as well.
Cut a lemon in half, these are going on the grill as well. No need to drizzle with olive oil though.
Ready to Grill!
Once your grill is ready, start by placing the lemons on the grill first. They take the most time (which is only a few minutes). Then add the romaine (place the cut side facedown on the grill) and the sliced bread.
The romaine cook the quickest and will be ready to pull off the grill in just 1-2 minutes (spending on how hot your grill is). You don’t really want to “bbq” the lettuce, you are simply just getting a slight char on one side. Once lightly charred, remove from the grill.
The bread slices will need to be turned after about 2 minutes. Once each side is lightly toasted and golden brown, remove from the grill.
The lemon is ready pretty much once the other ingredients cook. It will be lightly charred and grilling them just gives a hint more “bbq” flavor to the dish.
Homemade Caesar Dressing
This dressing is so good! It may seem like a lot of ingredients or effort, but it is so worth it. Plus it’s made without raw eggs, so it’s safe for everyone to eat.
Our recipe was inspired by this Eggless Caesar Dressing by Daphne Oz (which we love!) but we’ve changed it up a little bit to make it our own. Hers is really delicious though.
We love making a big batch of this dressing to dip raw veggies into or even add to wraps and on top of grilled fish.
Grilled Caesar Salad
Ingredients
For the Salad
- 3 Hearts of Romaine, cut in half lengthwise
- 4 slices French Bread or Sourdough Bread
- 1 Lemon, cut in half
- 2 tbsp Olive Oil
- 1/4 cup parmesan cheese
For the Dressing
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tbsp dijon mustard
- 1 tbsp capers
- 1 lemon, juiced
- 4 anchovies, diced
- 1 tsp worcestershire sauce
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- 1/3 cup olive oil
Instructions
For the Dressing
- In a medium bowl, combine the minced garlic, dijon, capers, juice of a lemon, diced anchovies, and worcestershire. Mix to combine, taste and season with salt if needed. While whisking, slowly pour in the olive oil until dressing combinesNote – you can also combine the ingredients in a food processor for a thicker style dressing
For the Grilled Caesar
- Light/preheat your grill
- Drizzle the cut surface of each romaine heart with olive oil and both sides of the bread slices. You do not need to drizzle oilive oil on the lemon halves
- Once the grill is warm, place the two lemon halves (cut side facedown) on the grill, the cut romaine hearts (cut side facedown) and the bread slices
- The romaine only needs to be grilled for about 2 minutes before it can be pulled off the grill. You do not need to grill both sides as you are just tyring ot lightly char the surface
- Grill the bread slcies for about 3-4 minutes on each side, just until they are lightly toasted and golden brown on each side. Remove from grill once they are
- The lemon can be pulled off the grill once the lettuce and bread are finished
- Option for serving – you can chop the grilled lettuce or leave the split romaine hearts intact for guests to take one. The choice is up to you. The toasted bread can be cut into one inch cubes
- To serve the salad – top the grilled romaine with the cubed toast and squeeze with the grilled lemon. Add the dressing by either a) pouring over chopped salad and then mixing to combine or b) drizzling over sliced romaine hearts and saving some to serve on the side
- Top with freshly grated parmesan cheese and enjoy!
