Awareness Wednesday: Caesar Dressing

Hello everyone and welcome to another Awareness Wednesday post.  With spring here and summer around the corner, everyone is putting away their soup pots in exchange for salad bowls. There is nothing more refreshing than a big bowl of  fresh salad on a spring day.  While I hate the cliche of "vegetarians only eat salads" once in a while its nice to enjoy a salad. People might think and veggies like us just live off salad, but some of you may not know there are salads that we can't even eat!



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Caesar salad is another one of those foods that I ate when I first became a vegetarian because I didn't know any better.  Then one night I was watching that cartoon called Brace Face.  In the episode, the main character decides to become a vegetarian.  There is a scene where she is in the cafeteria asking the lunch lady if there is meat in each of the food options. Then she asked something that had never crossed my mind until then: "Is there anchovy paste in the Caesar dressing?"

WHAT?! Fish in my dressing? I was shocked and confused, and popped right up to do some research.  Low and behold that cartoon was right! Caesar dressing is made with anchovy paste.  Of course I stopped eating it right then and there.


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Then a year or two later, I was at a friend's birthday dinner. She decided to have a big family style Italian dinner at a local restaurant for her friends and family.  There were 3 vegetarians there, including myself, so she was nice enough to include a vegetarian pasta dish for us.  First the salad came out, and it was a Caesar salad.  I politely declined and nibbled on some bread.  But I noticed one of her vegetarian friends eating away.  I informed her that the Caesar dressing wasn't vegetarian, and then she ran to her mom (who was also a vegetarian) freaking out. I over heard her comforting her daughter telling her that Caesar dressing was, in fact, vegetarian.

This is why I have this blog, to inform vegetarians what is actually in the food they eat.  It saddened me that night to see a vegetarian eat animals, and not even know.

While ordering a Caesar salad at a restaurant might be no longer in the picture for us, you can always make it yourself at home! I have found this recipe, among others online, for vegetarian Caesar dressing. While I have not made it myself, I am very excited to try it!

Are you exchanging traditional Caesar dressing for your own home made vegetarian version?

Bye from the Veggie Side!