Deconstructed Grilled Caesar Salad (gluten free)

Ingredients

Buy whole hearts of Romaine and leave the core on to hold the lettuce together on the grill.

• egg yolks - This is the secret to the smooth, richness of any mayonnaise dressing.
• garlic
• anchovy paste
• red wine vinegar
• lemon juice
• dry mustard
• olive oil
• Parmesan cheese
• gluten free bread if making the croutons
• romaine lettuce hearts

See recipe card for exact amounts.

Instructions for Grilled Lettuce

Romaine lettuce is a sturdy green that stands up to a brief minute or two on the grill. That makes this the perfect salad for grilling. The slightly more compact Romaine hearts, sold in bags at grocery stores, worked best for me.

Instructions for Gluten Free Caesar Salad Dressing

There’s nothing like homemade dressing and I live by that. The secret to a thick dressing is the same secret for making homemade mayonnaise. Recipes typically instruct you to slowly drizzle in the oil. Whether you are using a hand blender or a food processor, this step is most important at the very beginning. Don't rush it.

Instructions for Parmesan Cheese Wafers

Melting grated Parmesan cheese in a frying pan, and laying them on a rolling pin while still warm, is how you get the classic look of thin crisp wafers called tuiles.

If I happened to have a few of my homemade cheddar cheese wafers I wouldn't hesitate to serve them instead. They don't have Parmesan in them but they are so good...with a glass of red wine!

Storing Homemade Salad Dressing

This dressing will last a few weeks and make two or three salads for us. I have a few salad dressing bottles and also use Mason jars for the extra. Sometimes I even label the bottle.

Tools and Tips for Making Cheese Wafers

To make the wafers I got set up at the stove and grated a huge pile of Parmesan cheese with my favourite Microplane grater. I compared 1½ tablespoons of cheese to 2 tablespoons, several flippers and two frying pans. I had a non-stick frying pan and a ceramic one. It was tricky but I did it so here are my tips if you are up for the challenge.

• Measure the cheese so you can drop it in the center of the pan all at once
• Use the smoothest, most flexible small flipper you have
• Flip it with confidence so it doesn’t fold over itself in the pan
• For the look of a French tuile (a baked cookie or wafer named after the look of a roof tile), lay the hot wafer over a rolling pin and allow it to cool completely. I have a nice marble rolling pin with a base which makes this job easy.

Full disclosure, these are not exactly easy to make. If you find yourself in the kitchen, cursing and swearing at these little cheese wafers think of me. Because when I was making mine, I was thinking of you.

The Gluten Free Dilemma: Croutons or No Croutons

The cheese wafers add a nice crunch so could just skip the croutons. I'd do that for myself but if I'm going to share it on the blog, a proper Caesar salad must have croutons.

I used a loaf of store bought gluten free bread and trimmed the ends after it was toasted and brushed with oil. I cut them into small triangles because I can't help but make things a bit different. I reserved all the leftover bread edges to make breadcrumbs for some savoury dish like meatballs, meat loaf or breaded pork chops.