How To Make Caesar Salad

You can buy commercially prepared croûtons in the supermarket, but making your own is so simple and such a good way of using up stale bread, it’s worth doing at home at least some of the time. The bread needs to be stale because fresh bread doesn’t hold its shape and absorbs too much oil. (Add garlic salt to hot oil or use a flavoured oil rather than plain vegetable or sunflower oil.) Alternatively, break up a few breadsticks, crispbakes or French toasts to use as croûtons instead. Caesar salad can be especially good with a ripe avocado, halved and cubed, or cold, leftover chicken cut into chunks.

1. Step 1:

   Warm a mixture of oil (corn, sunflower or vegetable) and olive oil in a frying pan with the crushed garlic while you remove the crusts from the slices of stale bread and cut them into small chunks.

2. Step 2:

   Fry the bread over a medium heat, turning every now and again until the croûtons are golden all over.

3. Step 3:

   Meanwhile, wash and thoroughly dry the lettuce – wrap it in a clean tea towel and shake it outside or over the bath if you haven’t got a salad spinner – and shred it as finely as you can.

4. Step 4:

   Put the lettuce in a large glass bowl; sprinkle with lemon juice and mix with the croûtons – plus any other ingredients you’re using – then top with the finely grated Parmesan cheese. Serve chilled.