Celery Caesar Salad

This salad is hugely popular around here, and for good reason. The celery is crunchy and flavorful, the chickpeas are crouton-ish but wholesome, the Parmesan cheese is perfection, and the dressing is absolutely lip-smacking. Can you omit the anchovies? Of course you can! But I’d encourage you not to. They’re not really noticeable in the dressing, but they add an intense and unique umami flavor. Plus, if you like Caesar salad, you already like anchovies in your dressing. Note: if you’ve got a mandoline-style slicer, you can make short work of cutting the celery. 

If you’re looking to lower the carbs, skip the chickpeas or use smaller portions. To lower the fat, use less oil to fry the chickpeas or skip the mayonnaise. To lower the salt, skip the anchovies.

Recipe Details

Makes 6 servings

Total carbohydrates: 14 grams per serving

Hands-on time: 20 minutes

Total time: 35 minutes

Ingredients

For the chickpea croutons:

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 (15-ounce) can chickpeas, drained and blotted dry on a double layer of paper towels
• Pinch of salt

For the dressing:

• The juice and finely grated zest of 1 lemon
• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped or put through a garlic press
• 4 anchovy filets
• 1 tablespoon mayonnaise
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• Black pepper (to taste)

For the salad:

• 1 bunch celery (or 2 celery hearts)
• 1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese 

Instructions

1. Make the chickpea croutons: Heat the oil in a pan over medium heat. Add the chickpeas in a single layer, salt them liberally, and leave them for a few minutes, unpestered by you and your spatula, so they can start to turn a bit golden on the bottom. Then start flipping and turning them every so often, shaking the pan around, until the chickpeas are as crisp and brown as they could be without burning. This will take 10-15 minutes. Let them cool while you make the rest of the salad.
2. Blend together all the dressing ingredients in a blender, food processor, or mortar and pestle until the dressing is creamy and smooth. Absent any of these methods, you can chop the anchovy filets finely and whisk the ingredients together.
3. Trim off the tops from the celery bunch, then cut across the whole bunch to slice the celery stalks, along with all the leaves, into thin slivers. Use the whole thing, or measure around four cups of slices and leaves, and stop there.
4. Put the celery in a bowl, dress it with most of the dressing, then toss and taste. It will probably need the rest of the dressing and possibly a pinch of salt as well. Top with Parmesan and the chickpeas and serve right away.