My dad is coming to visit this week. This means two very important things are on my “what to make dad” menu. 1) Chili, always and 2) Caesar salad. Those are essential food groups for the guy. Anything else is icing on the cake. Plus, I always welcome the opportunity to use my huge bamboo salad bowl that we received as a wedding gift from our friends. When this bowl comes out, it’s something special!
Even though Caesar salad isn’t traditional holiday fare, I totally think you can serve it as part of a holiday menu. I love an unexpected twist on the table personally. Do you have any non-traditional dishes that are go-to’s for your family? My mother-in-law used to always serve Caesar salad as part of Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner and I swear it was one of the things that went the fastest, next to her famous croquettes. And my dad, well…let’s just say his famous Caesar salad and chili make an appearance at every Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve gathering.
I’ve made a couple vegan Caesar salad recipes over the years (one of which is in my cookbook), but I think this version is my best rendition yet. Recipes are always works in progress for me and I find each time I make it, I’m always trying new things. In addition to a new dressing, I also added roasted chickpea croutons and a nut and seed based parmesan cheese. I used a blend of traditional romaine lettuce with non-traditional Lacinato kale (destemmed of course). This way you have the classic flavour of romaine with the nutritional boost of the kale, without scaring anyone away (ahem, dad). I love the two tone greens in the bowl too. It’s a great make ahead salad because you can prep everything the day before (except for the roasted chickpeas) and then just mix it up the day of your event!
The first time I made this dressing, I actually used double the quantities you’ll see in the recipe below. However, I found that it made way too much (I had half leftover after mixing the salad), so I cut the dressing ingredients in half and it still worked out fine in the blender. I’m just mentioning this in case you are wondering about making a larger batch for a crowd – this dressing doubles beautifully!
I had a lot of fun with the photoshoot for this recipe, so I’ll let the photos do the rest of the talking.
And in case I’m not back again this week, I’d like to wish my American readers a lovely Thanksgiving! Thank you for coming here each week and eagerly trying out so many of the recipes I share. If you’re looking for my favourite Thanksgiving recipes, you can find them here. Also check out my 3 Course Step-by-Step Vegan and Gluten-Free Holiday Menu.
Featuring all new, protein-packed salads, hearty toppers, flavour boosters, and dressings you'll want to drink, my new cookbook will transform the way you think about salads. Oh, and be sure to flip to the back for a surprise dessert chapter!
Crowd-Pleasing Vegan Caesar Salad
Yield
6 small bowls
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
This is a delicious, creamy vegan Caesar salad that will wow any crowd! Everyone who’s tried it goes absolutely nuts over it, and it’s my most popular salad recipe on the blog. To take it over the top, I garnish the salad with a generous amount of crunchy Roasted Chickpea Croutons and a delectable Nut and Seed Parmesan Cheese for the ultimate vegan Caesar salad. The dressing recipe easily doubles for a larger group and it’ll keep in the fridge in a sealed container for a few days so you can make it in advance. Dressing adapted from My Vega.
Ingredients
For the Roasted Chickpea Croutons:
- 1 (14-ounce/398 mL) can chickpeas (or 1 1/2 cups cooked), drained and rinsed
- 1 teaspoon (5 mL) extra-virgin olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)
For the Caesar Dressing (makes 3/4-1 cup):
- 1/2 cup raw cashews, soaked overnight
- 1/4 cup (60 mL) water
- 2 tablespoons (30 mL) extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 tablespoon (15 mL) lemon juice
- 1/2 tablespoon (7.5 mL) Dijon mustard
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 small garlic clove (you can add another if you like it super potent)
- 1/2 tablespoon (7.5 mL) vegan Worcestershire sauce (I use Wizard's gluten-free brand)
- 2 teaspoons capers
- 1/2 teaspoon fine grain sea salt and pepper, or to taste
For the Nut and Seed Parmesan Cheese:
- 1/3 cup raw cashews
- 2 tablespoons hulled hemp seeds
- 1 small garlic clove
- 1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
- 1 tablespoon (15 mL) extra-virgin olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- fine grain sea salt, to taste
For the lettuce:
- 1 small/medium bunch lacinato kale, destemmed (5 cups chopped)
- 2 small heads romaine lettuce (10 cups chopped)
Directions
- Soak cashews in a bowl of water overnight, or for at least a few hours. Drain and rinse.
- Roast chickpea croutons: Preheat oven to 400°F (200°C). Drain and rinse chickpeas. Place chickpeas in a tea towel and rub dry (it's okay if some skins fall off). Place onto large rimmed baking sheet. Drizzle on oil and roll around to coat. Sprinkle on the garlic powder, salt, and optional cayenne. Toss to coat. Roast for 20 minutes at 400°F (200°C), then gently roll the chickpeas around in the baking sheet. Roast for another 10 to 20 minutes, until lightly golden. They will firm up as they cool.
- Prepare the dressing: Add the cashews and all other dressing ingredients (except salt) into a high-speed blender, and blend on high until the dressing is super smooth. You can add a splash of water if necessary to get it blending. Add salt to taste and adjust other seasonings, if desired. Set aside.
- Prepare the Parmesan cheese: Add cashews and garlic into a mini food processor and process until finely chopped. Now add in the rest of the ingredients and pulse until the mixture is combined. Salt to taste.
- Prepare the lettuce: Destem the kale and then finely chop the leaves. Wash and dry in a salad spinner. Place into extra large bowl. Chop up the romaine into bite-sized pieces. Rinse and then spin dry. Place into bowl along with kale. You should have roughly 5 cups chopped kale and 10 cups chopped romaine.
- Assemble: Add dressing onto lettuce and toss until fully coated. Season with a pinch of salt and mix again. Now sprinkle on the roasted chickpeas and the Parmesan cheese. Serve immediately.
Tip:
- Be sure to check the label to ensure your Worcestershire Sauce is gluten-free (if necessary) as not many are. I use Wizard`s Gluten-Free Organic Worcestershire Sauce.
- The dressing thickens when chilled, so be sure to leave it at room temperature to soften before using.
This salad lives up to its name! I made it for Thanksgiving and my non-vegan sister asked for the recipe. She made it for another holiday party for non-vegans and said everyone loved it! I plan on using this dressing for other salads as well – it is so creamy, filling and satisfying! Thanks for this amazing recipe.
Love love love this salad! I made it for Christmas dinner and everyone really enjoyed it. I’ve been eating it every day since. I can’t believe how much it tastes like regular caesar salad!
It seems like a main component – is there anything you can sub for cashews? (allergy!)
This is the bomb! It formed part of our Christmas lunch, and was truly crowd-pleasing. A new family favourite. :-)
First of all, this is amazing and truly a crowd pleaser. Vegetarians have the option to use parmesan instead of the nutrition yeast + nut mix, which we did.
If you don’t soak the cashews in advance, boil the cashews for 15 minutes and let them cool. They’ll be soft and ready for blending. I’ve used this trick on a few Oh She Glows recipes and it’s always worked beautifully. It avoids the “oh crap, I didn’t soak so I can’t make this” situation.
Amazing dressing!!
I just made the Chakra Caesar Salad from your book and we love it. I did find it really thick and wasn’t sure if that is as expected or if I needed to add more water. Now I see you have this new version that uses cashews rather than almonds. I have a few questions and if you or any of your followers are able to answer that would be fantastic.
1) Chakra Caesar Salad – is it supposed to be very thick (not runny at all)?
2) Between this posted version and the book version which one is better?
3) Both versions – how long can you store them in the fridge?
Thank you Angela. I absolutely love your cookbook and Ive tried about 15 recipes so far. Each one is a hit. We are not vegan but like to switch it up and look for more reasons to increase our vegetable intake.
This salad is AMAZING! Made last night, husband and 10-year-old daughter loved it! Even better today. :)
I’ve had this on my “To Make” list for quite some time and only got around to finally making it tonight for dinner. Oh my gosh… it is fantastic. I’m a huge caesar salad fan/connoisseur and I had my reservations, but this may be my new standard. Thank you so much for the recipe!! I’m so excited to make it for friends and family when they come over.
Absolutely amazing! I made this salad for Dinner tonight and the crowd went wide! Thank you for posting!
This is the best caesar salad I have ever eaten! My husband and I devoured it! I will definitely be making this again! Thanks!
Oh my goodness, this was absolutely delicious! This was my first attempt at a vegan caesar dressing and it was delicious! Everything about this salad was heavenly delicious. I made mine for a week of lunch meals and just kept the components separate in the fridge and combined each serving together each day. I was surprised at how well everything held up, even the chick pea croutons. They weren’t super crispy after a day or so, but were still delicious! I added some whole grain fusilli pasta and chopped roasted almonds to add a little more protein to the meal and it was so great. I think a pasta salad with this dressing would be amazing as well!
This looks so good – my mouth is watering! We love Caesar salads but haven’t had them in a long while because, well, too fattenimg. I’m going to try the chick pea croutons tonight! Thanks for the inspiration ??
I just made the caesar dressing, and I can’t believe how delicious it is! I was literally licking the spoon! It tastes just. like. caesar. dressing!
The only modifications I made were that I added 3 cloves of garlic instead of 1, I added white miso instead of vegan Worcestershire, and I doubled the quantity of water simply because I like my dressing on the runnier side.
The roasted chickpeas are in the oven right now. I’ve never been so excited to eat a salad! <3
Great recipe!!
Can you freeze the caeser dressing, to use again later?
Made this salad today, loved it! I wish it didn’t take so much time to make though, especially the chickpeas, but in the end I felt proud for making it all myself from scratch :P I used spinach and kale instead of lettuce and it was great
Hi Angela,
Your recipes have yet to disappoint this almost vegetarian family. This salad looks amazing and I’ll try it tonight. Have you considered doing meal plans with shopping lists based on all your recipes? I’m not the best planner when it comes to meal and find myself at the grocery store often to purchase the ingredients I need. HELP me plan! ;)
thanks
F
A major hit, and I haven’t even added the chickpea ‘croutons’ yet. I’m cooking for a family who is doing alot of vegan experimentation right now and one member is also celiac. A friend of mine mentioned her vegetarian friend cooked her alot of lovely things from the cookbook so I thought I’d try. I don’t yet have nutritional yeast and was short on time so didn’t do chickpeas, so I thought we’d just serve with real cheese (since we aren’t completely vegan yet) and toasted pepitas. The dressing is so good and flavorful that we ended up skipping the cheese altogether! We have a foodie family and I am very hard to impress as far as innovative and tasty new recipes, so I’m converted.
Hi Chloe, it’s so great to hear you and your family enjoyed the salad! It’s definitely a fav recipe around here. If you try anything else from the blog or cookbook, I hope you enjoy it just as well! :)
Did you change seed/parm recipe? It used to have sesame seeds right? And no fresh garlic? I had this page book marked for reference. I really liked it the way it was :(
Yes, the recipe has been slightly modified in recent weeks. Hopefully, if you give the new version a try, you’ll agree with me that this topping is even more flavourful!
Wowzers. This was truly crowd-pleasing! I took it to a potluck last night, and everyone loved it. When I told them that it was vegan, they were all shocked! So so good.
Glad to hear the recipe was a hit, Laura!