Creamy Vegan Caesar Salad Dressing

Anchovies OPTIONAL!

A truly delicious and creamy vegan caesar salad–no oil added!

I am in shock…Today my son wanted to eat a caesar salad as his after school snack!  Now I’ve heard of kids who love veggies, but my son is definitely not one of them–he will only eat a select few.  He gobbled up the salad today and even wanted seconds!  

As I written about before, my son (and I) can’t eat wheat and dairy and so I am always on the look out for gluten and dairy free recipes.  Another mom sent me a recipe for cashew cream caesar salad dressing a while back and I recently found it again.  After much experimenting, I’ve come up with a recipe for a truly yummy and creamy vegan caesar salad.  I think it’s as good–even better–than the traditional caesar salad.  (Even when I did eat eggs, I never liked the idea of eating them raw in caesar dressing.) This recipe also does not use any oil!  The creaminess is achieved solely thru the use of nuts.  The original recipe used cashews, but I’ve had success with both macadamia and pistachio nuts.  The original recipe calls for soaking the nuts in water overnight, but I’ve found that in a pinch, soaking cashews for a 1/2 hour will work.  (harder nuts like macadamias really need at least 4 hours)

I’ve listed this recipe as “vegan” because the use of anchovy paste (or anchovies) is optional…The dressing still tastes great without anchovies, but adding a small amount gives it that classic caesar taste.  I did use it for my son because I’m always trying to load as much protein and minerals into his diet as I can!

Give this a try…It’s got to be good if my picky son loves it!

CREAMY VEGAN CAESAR SALAD DRESSING

1/2 cup raw nuts (cashew, pistachio, macadamia)

1/2 cup water

2 or 3 small cloves garlic (to your taste–the original recipe called for 10)

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice (usually–depending on size–juice from 1/2 medium size lemon)

Zest from 1/2 lemon

1 teaspoon pepper

1/4 teaspoon salt (to your taste)

3 anchovy fillets or 1 teaspoon anchovy paste–OPTIONAL!

1)  Combine nuts and water and soak for at least 1/2 hour  (4 hours preferable)

2)  Combine nuts/water with rest of ingredients and blend in a mini bullet or regular size blender.  Blend until smooth and creamy.

Makes enough to liberally dress a head of romaine lettuce.