Vegan Caesar Salad
Caesar salad is the queen of salads for me and this vegan version has all the wonderful savory and cheesy flavors of traditional Caesar dressing but the dressing here is actually oil free and made with a base of cashew nuts.Â
If you haven't tried a crispy roasted chickpea yet what are you doing?! The chickpeas are coated in a smoky seasoning and roasted to perfecting giving the perfect crunchy protein element to this salad you will not be missing the bacon with this plant based substitute. Pair these with the mild yet crunchy romaine and the perfect crispy ciabatta bread croutons.
Toss all of the ingredients together in a big mixing bowl with the dressing and you really will enjoy this healthy version of the classic delicious Caesar salad.
Ingredients needed for a vegan Caesar salad
- Chickpeas- Tinned chickpeas are perfect.
- Garlic & paprika- Paprika is essential for the smokey flavor and the garlic needs to be granules to ensure it sticks to the chickpeas.
- Romaine lettuce- Caesar typically uses romaine lettuce that works well for its mild flavour and crunchy texture. This can be replaced with iceberg lettuce or little gem lettuce. Feel free to add in some darker more nutritional leaves in there too.
- Ciabatta roll- Croutons can be made with any bread however I use ciabatta as a preference. Use whichever bread you have on hand, store bought croutons or omit croutons if you’d like to.
- Cashew nuts- The base of this dressing is raw cashew nuts that when blended have the perfect creamy texture. You can use sunflower seeds instead if you’d like to make this nut free.
- Capers- Caesar dressing typically contains anchovies which give a salty hit, to veganise I use capers for their salty savoury flavour.
- Miso paste- White miso paste gives a savoury saltiness to this dish you could omit this and use extra soy sauce if needed.
- Nutritional yeast- Caesar salad dressing has sharp cheesy flavour from the parmesan, I use nutritional yeast to achieve this. You could also substitute this for vegan parmesan.
- Aquafaba- The water from the chickpeas act as egg in this dressing, once blended with the other dressing ingredients this helps thicken the dressing.
Vegan lunch recipes
How to make crunchy chickpeas
The key factors of getting the best crispy chickpeas is to firstly dry the chickpeas well, make sure they are evenly coated in oil and to shake them a few times during the cooking period to get and even cook on all sides. Test them for crunch throughout the cooking period to ensure they are perfect.
Make it a more filling salad
My recommendation to make the salad more filling is to add a hit of carbs in the form of cooked, cold pasta. Wholegrain or protein pasta would be even better. This will keep you fuller for longer and make a more satisfying lunch.
Chickpea Caesar Salad
Ingredients
- 240 g Chickpeas cooked
- 1 tsp Paprika
- 1 tsp Garlic granules
- 2 tbsp Olive oil extra virgin
- 1 tsp Garlic granules
- 2 heads Romaine lettuce
- 2 Ciabatta rolls
Dressing
- 60 g Cashews raw
- 2 tsp Capers
- 1/2 tsp Black pepper
- 1 Garlic clove
- 1 tsp Miso paste
- 1 tbsp Soy sauce
- 2 tbsp Nutritional yeast
- 50 ml Chickpea water
- Juice of 1/2 a lemon
- 60 ml Water
Instructions
- Soak the cashews in boiling water.
- Drain the chickpeas but keep the liquid for the dressing.
- Toss the chickpeas in olive oil, paprika, salt & garlic granules and air fry or oven bake until crispy.
- Cut the ciabatta into chunks, toss in olive oil and add to the air fryer/oven tray for the last 5 minutes of baking.
- Combine all of the dressing ingredients in a high speed blender until a creamy dressing forms.
- Chop up the lettuce into bitesize pieces and add to a big bowl with the chickpeas, dressing, croutons and parmesan.
- Enjoy!
Notes
Some more popular chickpea recipes from the blog
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