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Whole Food Plant-Based Caesar Salad

Author Molly Patrick of Clean Food Dirty Girl

Ingredients

For the Salad

  • Romaine chopped
  • Red onion thinly sliced
  • Radish cut into rounds
  • Cucumber diced
  • Fresh mint chopped
  • Fresh dill chopped
  • Fresh Parsley chopped
  • Avocado diced
  • Croutons recipe below
  • Caesar dressing recipe below
  • Black pepper

For the Caesar Dressing

  • 1/2 cup raw cashews soaked in water for at least 10 minutes 70g
  • 2 small-ish garlic cloves minced
  • 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast 12g
  • 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
  • 1 teaspoon vegan worcestershire sauce
  • 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
  • 1/2 teaspoon dulse flakes or powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup water

Instructions

Make the Caesar Dressing

  1. Drain and rinse the cashews (discard the soaking water) and place them in your blender, along with the rest of the dressing ingredients (garlic cloves, nutritional yeast, apple cider vinegar, Worcestershire, lemon juice, dulse, Dijon mustard, salt and water) and blend until super creamy, about a minute.

  2. If you have a nut allergy or want a lower fat version use 1/2 cup tofu (100g) instead of cashews.

Make the Croutons

  1. Croutons without oil? Heck yes, totally doable and yum-tastic.
  2. Take 5 or 6 pieces of sprouted grain bread and cut them into good hearty chunks, a little bigger than bite-sized.
  3. Heat a skillet over medium heat and place the bread chunks in the skillet.
  4. Cook for 5 minutes, flipping them occasionally so they get toasty on all sides.
  5. Add some dried and fresh herbs an spices and a little sea salt and continue cooking. You can add whatever herbs and spices you like, but a pretty solid combo is onion and garlic powder, paprika, a little chili powder and some fresh dill.
  6. Cook for an additional 10 minutes, stirring frequently so nothing burns. When the croutons are toasted and crisp on the outside and slightly soft on the inside, that’s when you know you hit perfection. Turn off the heat and allow them to cool.
  7. A good trick is to save the end pieces of your bread in the freezer and when you’re ready to make croutons, bust them out and use those.

Assemble the salad

  1. I have no idea how hungry you will be when you make this or how many people you will be feeding, so how much you add of each thing is entirely up to you.
  2. In a large bowl add the romaine, red onion, radish, cucumber, fresh herbs (just a little of each), avocado and croutons.
  3. Add the dressing and then mix until everything is coated in the yummy dressing.
  4. Top with fresh black pepper and serve.