Have you ever had a Caesar or Bloody Mary cocktail before?
Caesar’s were my absolute favourite drink growing up- the virgin, non-alcoholic kind, mind you! It was a rare occasion when my family wouldn’t have a few supersized bottles of Mott’s Clamato in our pantry. If our stock ran out, my sister and I would often fight over who got the last glass. Or, we’d drink so much that my dad would go to make himself a glass and there would be none left for him.
“Did someone drink the rest of the Clamato juice…??”
Uh oh.
“Kristi did it!!!”
We’d pour a huge, celery-salt rimmed glass of Clamato juice, add in some Worcestershire sauce, ice, a few drops of Tabasco, and a stalk of celery. Nothing was better.
Admittedly, I always thought a Bloody Mary was simply a virgin Caesar with vodka added to it; however, I recently discovered that Caesar’s and Bloody Mary’s are two different drinks.
A Bloody Mary is a cocktail that uses tomato juice as the base and includes other ingredients such as vodka, celery salt, Worcestershire sauce, horseradish, olive, cayenne pepper/Tabasco sauce, lemon juice, and occasionally even bouillon. Sometimes instead of celery it’s garnished with pickled asparagus or other vegetables. The origin of the drink is unclear and there is dispute over who created it, although many speculate the drink came from the US (1).
A Caesar cocktail, on the other hand, is made up with a base of clam and tomato juice (think Clamato juice), containing similar ingredients like Tabasco sauce, Worcestershire sauce, vodka, celery, and a celery-salt rimmed glass. It’s said to originate from Calgary, Alberta in 1969 (2). Walter Chell created the drink for the opening of his new restaurant in Calgary (3).
As you can see, the two drinks are strikingly similar, save for a different base, a few seasonings, and traditional garnishes.
When people ask me what foods were the most difficult to give up when I went vegan, many are surprised when I say “Clamato Juice”. But it’s true! I used to drink this stuff like water and it only occurred to me recently that I should try making my own vegan-friendly version at home.
My mission started rather abruptly, with a V8 explosion. I opened this bottle a couple months ago, forgot it in the back of the fridge, and was rewarded with this little mess when I opened it. Needless to say, I did not use this sour V8 in my cocktail! The smell of it would make your nose hairs curl. It was just awful.
Enter, new, unopened vegetable juice.
Using this Homemade Bloody Mary recipe from Kristina as a guide, I dumped the juice in a bowl and added the ingredients all to taste.
I suggest you do the same. You may prefer more or less of the seasonings I used. When it tastes good to you, it’s done!
After tasting and testing and adjusting the seasonings (feel free to pretend you’re a crazy cool Mixologist), it wasn’t long before I decided that my drink was perfect. I also added a pinch of kelp granules to give it a hint of the sea, without the clams.
The mix turned out so similar to my childhood favourite I’m not sure I could pick out the original in a blind taste test. I guess the real test will be making this for my dad when he comes to visit. I predict he will like this version better, but I may be biased. ;)
Homemade Vegan Caesar Cocktail
Yield
Two 500ml servings
Prep time
Cook time
0 minutes
Total time
Is this a vegan version of a Caesar cocktail or is it an adapted version of the Bloody Mary? I can’t decide. Whatever you call it, this is one fantastic drink with a whopping 4 servings of vegetables per 500 ml glass. Be sure to add the seasonings to taste and you can’t go wrong. Adapted from Former Chef.
Ingredients
- 4 cups (32 oz) vegetable juice
- 1 tbsp Dijon mustard
- 1-1.5 tbsp vegan Worcestershire sauce (I use The Wizard’s brand)
- 2-2.5 tsp hot sauce, or to taste
- 4 tbsp fresh lemon juice
- 3 tbsp fresh lime juice
- 3/4 tsp celery seed
- Sprinkle of Herbamare or kosher salt, to taste
- Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- Vodka, to taste (optional)
- Kelp granules, to taste (optional)
- To garnish: celery salt, lime, celery stalks, ice
Directions
- In a large bowl or pitcher, add the vegetable juice. Now whisk in the rest of the ingredients all to taste.
- Grab two 500-ml glasses and rim the edge with a lime wedge. Now dip glass rim into a shallow bowl of celery salt. Pour drink into glasses and garnish with a lime wedge, celery stalk, and ice. Serve immediately.
I didn’t have any celery salt on hand, so I used kosher salt. I wouldn’t really recommend it though, it was more for the photo than anything!
After a tough workout yesterday, this was the best, thirst-quenching drink to happen to my taste buds in a long time!
With 4 servings of vegetables per glass, it was also a great way to sneak veggies into my day with minimal effort.
A vegetarian Bloody Mary is my favourite summertime cocktail. I call it the Bloody Katie and I use a tonne of horseradish in it, lots of lime juice, and celery salt both in the drink and on the rim. I love it with a shot of vodka and a spicy pickled green bean!
What a great recipe! I never made a Vegan Cesar or a Bloody Mary, and I know my husband would love me to make one. It’s one of his favorite drinks, yet were lucky if we have it more the once every few years!!
Question–how long do you think this would keep in the fridge? I’ve never made my own bloodys, but I am wondering if I could keep it in the fridge overnight?
Hey Allie,
I found they were best consumed immediately. They tend to taste less fresh the next day…but still enjoyable.
YUM!! I posted a homemade Bloody Maria (which is a Bloody Mary but with TEQUILA!!!) on my blog a few weeks back. I, of course, HATED having my drink through all the props :) xox
mmmm, you don’t know how much I want a caesar now!
Can’t wait to make this for myself! As always, you rock Ang!
I’ve gotta say – I’ve never heard a vegan say that giving up clam juice was the hardest. And I thought hearing people say “honey” was odd- cheese is what I hear most often!
I’ve never heard the term’ Caesar” for a drink before. This sounds so good though- I looove bloody marys. There’s a restaurant near me that makes a version with tequila and has old bay around the rim (well, around here people put old bay on everything)- and that is my favorite.
haha well I would say yogurt was the hardest for me. I didn’t eat tons of cheese before so it wasn’t super hard. But yea clam juice isup there…how weird am I?
OH be still my beating heart. SERIOUSLY. CAesers are my DRANK!!! THANK YOU!!
Enjoy your DRANK!!
Oh my, now you have me craving a ceaser and it’s not even lunch time yet! Definitely my favourite drink. I rim the glass with season salt and it’s soo good.
I’d like to think that I was the FIRST to spot your “2 sec. ago…V8 explosion?!” post last Friday…he he :D … you know how I stalk you… I remember thinking…there’s cute Angela being cute! and then you posted this awesome creation all from that! love it…did you spike yours after your workout? :)
Wow, sounds amazing! Love Bloody Mary’s, never heard of a Caesar but may have to try this delicious sounding version!
I loove bloody mary’s… there is a restaurant called The Flying Biscuit (small chain in the US Southeast) that makes theirs with sake AND pickled okra mm..
But all this brunchy goodness started making me thing… what about a homemade vegan cream cheese? maybe cashew cream with some lemon?
Mine will definitely include vodka! looks delicious, thanks for sharing!
I just learned what a caesar was last month — so funny you posted this!
Looks delicious!
this looks amazing. while I’m not vegan, i’m always looking for variations of my beloved caesar. and I didn’t know they were a Canadian thing until recently, when I was talking to an American and they looked at me like I was a nut job!
I am so excited to try this. An occasional Caesar has been my only vegan exception to date, so i would LOVE to have something vegan to replace it with :)
Angela,
You’ve been such an inspiration to me! Though I don’t know that I’ll try the Caesar anytime soon (i’m not a huge van of tomato juice!) your blog and your journey has been a catalyst for me. I wrote my first post this evening.
Keep being awesome!
Thanks Michaela! I’ll check it out :)
I think the mason jar mugs are also part of what differentiates a caesar from a bloody mary, it just doesn’t taste right without them! These were also very prominent throughout my childhood, although when we were younger, my sister and I called them pickle juice, because it was just about the only time we saw dill pickles (spears not slices) in the house!
THANK YOU !!!!! I’ve recently moved from Canada to Australia and was dying for a Caesar the other day… made this recipe… was nearly brought to tears… so SO delicious… a little piece of Canada in the Aussy sunshine :)
hahah happy to help!! I know all about that craving too!
How long do you think these have a shelf life for? My husband will go nuts if i tell him there is a healthy option for caesars! I was thinking of making a couple batches and having them in the fridge.. you say serve immediately so I wasn’t sure if perhaps they wouldn’t sit for too long? thanks!
Hey Kellie, To be honest, I’m not really sure about shelf life! I’ve always drank them right away. I imagine they would hold up for a half a day probably? Not totally sure though! Let me know if you try it out. My guess is that they would need a good stir after sitting.
Cannot wait to try this recipe!! Thank you for sharing. Sounds delish!