Caesar Salad

This beauty is our vegan Caesar salad - not something you'd normally see as a plant-based option, but we're really pleased with how it's come out and the dressing tastes like the real deal. We've used a cashew base, along with nutritional yeast, lemon and mustard, then to replace the anchovies we've used capers to get that tangy and salty flavour.

Caesar Salad [Vegan]

Ingredients

For the salad:

• 2 romaine lettuce hearts - roughly chopped
• 4 thick slices of bread - cut into bite-size chunks
• 1 avocado - cut into chunks
• A couple of handfuls of a vegan chicken alternative or tofu - we use some homemade chicken-style seitan
• Half a tin of chickpeas
• Olive oil
• Salt & pepper

For the dressing:

• 1/2 cup cashews - soaked in water overnight (or in hot water for as long as you can if you're in a rush)
• 1/4 cup water
• 4 tablespoons nutritional yeast
• Juice of 1/2 lemon
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 teaspoons capers
• 1 clove garlic

Preparation

1. Pre-heat your oven to gas mark 360ºF.
2. Chuck the bread and chickpeas in a large bowl, pour over a good glug of olive oil, salt and pepper, and toss to give everything a good cover.
3. Put in a roasting pan and roast in the oven for around 10 minutes or until the bread is nicely toasted all over - check regularly to make sure you don't burn the croutons.
4. While the bread and chickpeas are in the oven, add all the ingredients for your sauce into a blender along with a generous amount of black pepper. Blend until it's completely smooth - give it a taste and add salt, black pepper, nutritional yeast or lemon to taste.
5. Once everything is ready, layer up the lettuce, avocado, croutons, chickpeas and vegan chicken. Top with the dressing (and give it a mix to coat everything if you want to) and that's it - vegan Caesar salad!

https://www.onegreenplanet.org/vegan-recipe/caesar-salad-vegan/