The Best Vegan Caesar Salad

I promise you’ll be making this recipe more than once this week.

Ditch the dairy! And the anchovies. This recipe will prove to you that vegan food tastes just as good as animal products if not better. To learn more about ditching dairy, read below the recipe.

Estimated time: 40 minutes

Effort/Skill: Easy

Preheat oven to 350 F

Ingredients & Directions 

1 large head of romaine lettuce

1 whole cucumber

4 green onions

For the dressing:

½ cup organic raw cashews

2 tbsp vegan mayonnaise

2-3 cloves garlic

½ lemon juiced

2 tbsp nutritional yeast

¼ tsp onion powder

¼ tsp freshly ground pepper

1 tbsp capers, drained

¼ cup water

Salt to taste

For the Croutons (optional):

2 slices of your favourite bread (regular or gluten free)

Vegan margarine for spreading

Pinch of garlic powder

Salt to taste

For the croutons: Preheat the oven to 350 F. While the oven is preheating, lightly butter the bread on both sides. Sprinkle the garlic powder and salt evenly across both sides of the bread. Cut the bread into rough cubes. Spread the cubes onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper (use a reusable pan liner if you have it!). Bake the cubes for 10-12 minutes, turning halfway through.

For the dressing: Boil the cashews for at least 15 minutes or until soft. You should be able to crush them easily with a fork. While the cashews are boiling, mince the garlic and juice the lemon. Once the cashews are boiled, add all the ingredients to a blender and blend until smooth.

For the veggies: Thoroughly rinse the lettuce, cucumber and green onions and dry lettuce with a clean towel or add it to a salad spinner. Chop the lettuce into bite sized pieces. Chop the cucumber and dice the greeen onion.

To assemble the salad: Add the lettuce, cucumber and green onion to a large bowl. Add the dressing and mix well so the dressing is evenly distributed. Top the salad off with your croutons and freshly ground pepper.

NOURISHED FACT

Top 3 reasons to ditch dairy:

1. Your health: Consumption of dairy has been linked to several health conditions including, worsening LDL cholesterol levels (the bad kind). 

2. The environment: Dairy is one of the leading causes of deforestation, pollution, and water consumption. 

3. The animals: Dairy cows are treated anything but humanely. Mothers and babies are split up so we can steal the mothers milk, and the male babies are used for veal. The cows are impregnated over and over again so they keep producing milk. In fact, meat is actually the byproduct of dairy.