Caprese Caesar Salad Recipe (Easy Salad Recipe)

Caprese Caesar Salad is a delicious fusion of the traditional Caprese salad with a Caesar dressing! It’s filled with flavor and packs a real wow factor when serving at a dinner party.

​This fusion salad recipe is something the whole family will love! I recently served this at a dinner party and I’m still getting messages about how good it was. 

If you love cherry tomatoes and mozzarella balls and caesar dressing you will LOVE this recipe.

​When you’re hosting a dinner party, especially in the summertime, you want a meal that is easy to prep ahead of time and doesn’t require a lot of cooking.

Enter the Caprese Caesar Salad! 

​I served this delicious salad with Steakhouse Chicken, and it was a hit!

​Let’s get not cooking…

How to Make Caprese Caesar Salad

First, let’s gather the ingredients for the easy salad recipe.

Classic Caprese salad is fresh mozzarella cheese layered with sliced juicy tomatoes and fresh basil leaves. It is summertime on a plate, y’all!

I’ve been making my own version of Caprese salad for years using creamy mozzarella pearls, sliced grape tomatoes, and lots of acids, like balsamic glaze, red wine vinegar, and capers.

Using a balsamic vinegar or balsamic reduction with ripe tomatoes creates an Italian classic! The best flavor all together in a covered container!

This tomato salad goes with almost anything! Try it mixed with homemade croutons for a Bruschetta Panzanella Salad. 

Or, spoon it over leftover Ranch Meal Prep Chicken for a deliciously amazing Bruschetta Chicken recipe!

The best part about this recipe is you need to make this a day or two ahead of time. Woo hoo!! One less thing for you to do on dinner party day! Those kinds of delicious salads are what I like to keep on hand in my fridge. 

Now, the other parts of this salad are the Caesar Dressing, Croutons, and lettuce.

Making the Caesar Dressing

I love using my Caesar Dip Recipe as a dressing. It’s simple pantry staples all mixed up together, and used as either a dip for fresh veggies, sandwiches, etc. Or, spooned and tossed with romaine lettuce! I’ve even used it as for a Caesar Dip Salmon and Broccoli Sheet Pan Supper! That video is definitely worth watching for the easy recipe…

Caesar Dressing Ingredients include:

Mayo — traditional Caesar dressing uses raw egg yolks to create the emulsion. This replaces the egg yolks and creates a creamy consistency!

Parmesan Cheese — Grate up a hunk of aged parmesan yourself and taste the difference over the pre shredded business! If you have a food processor, you can definitely drop the hunks into it and give it a whirl to create the same texture as what you buy in the store.

Black Pepper — Every Caesar salad should come with copious amounts of cracked black pepper!

Olive Oil — Get the good stuff that you’re not supposed to cook with. I am loving Graza’s Drizzle Olive oil! It’s got quite the spicy bite to it and adds a great depth of flavor.

Champagne Vinegar or Red Wine Vinegar — the bright acidic hit from either of these vinegars wakes up the entire sauce and really gives you that puckery mouth feel.

Lemon Juice — Since we’re adding lemon juice, I’ll zest half the lemon before squeezing the juice into the dip.

Anchovy paste — if you’re not a fan, you can definitely leave this out, but I promise you won’t even know it’s there. And the paste that comes in a tube is far easier to stomach than the little fish packed in a container.

Worcestershire Sauce — I love everything about W sauce! It’s got such a deep flavor that perks everything up around it. Caesar dressing isn’t complete without it!

Capers — Using the vinegary-based, briney capers in your dip gives you a burst of flavor to everything you get in your mouth!

Sliced Shallots — I love adding in sliced shallots to the dressing for added texture and flavor.

Dijon Mustard — Caesar isn’t complete without this iconic mustard!

Fresh Garlic — fresh garlic cloves are either grated on a Microplane or smooshed using a Garlic Press into the dressing/dip.

​Caprese Caesar Salad Croutons

Since this salad recipe is so simple, you’ll want to spend a little time making your croutons from scratch. I haven’t bought croutons in forever because homemade is so much better!

But, these Croissant Croutons are ridiculously amazing!!!

Slice up croissants on a cutting board and place them on a sheet pan. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with a seasoning blend.

​Bake until crispy, then top with shredded parmesan cheese. Bake for an additional 5 minutes to melt the cheese.

​Let the croutons cool, then store and keep them until you’re ready to serve them on your Caprese Caesar Salad.

Making these croissant croutons is a simple way to elevate the ordinary. Yes, you for sure can make bite-sized pieces of bread into croutons. But, using a croissant makes it feel a little more exciting and fancy!

Assembling the Salad

The key ingredient in this recipe is the romaine lettuce. A few days before you need to serve your salad, give the lettuce a good wash and dry. I roll my leaves up in clean kitchen towels and store them inside a bowl in the fridge. This helps keep the lettuce dry, crisp, and super cold.

When you’re ready to assemble your salad, place your chopped romaine lettuce leaves onto a giant platter. I love this BIG Golden Rabbit Enamelware serving platter.

After the lettuce, you’ll top the whole dish with your tomato salad and croutons.

Serve the creamy dressing on the side for people to dress their own salad.

The tomato salad is super juicy, so it creates its kind of balsamic dressing while it sits in the fridge for a couple of days. 

I will tell you, this Caprese Caesar Salad is quickly going to become your new favorite salad recipe!

The creamy dressing with sweet tomatoes, mini mozzarella balls, and crispy croutons… 

Serving Caprese Caesar

Serve this as a main course, or on the side with grilled chicken or a juicy Beef Tenderloin for a show-stopping dinner party idea!

Finally, save this to your favorite Salad Board on Pinterest

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