Light and lemony, this plant-based Caesar Salad dressing is made with avocado instead of oil. You can whip this up in minutes — it’s just 5 simple ingredients that go straight into the blender.
The Ingredients
You’re likely familiar with all but one of the ingredients in this dressing. It includes the usual suspects: avocado, lemon juice, garlic powder, and dijon mustard. Our ‘secret’ ingredient is black salt — which you’ll see from the photograph — is actually pink. Black salt is also called kala namak. If it’s not readily available where you live, you can easily order it online. It’s a worthwhile pantry item to have on hand, especially if you’re vegan or plant-based, as it provides an eggy taste to dishes. If you don’t have any black salt, you can swap with regular table salt or sea salt, but the end result won’t taste quite the same.
Making the Dressing
This is quick to make as all of the ingredients go straight into the blender. Just blend until creamy. When you open your blender, it will probably smell quite sulfur-ish from the black salt. Don’t fret – this is going to dissipate quickly!
This dressing is…wait for it…perfect for making a plant-based Caesar Salad.
Key ingredients in traditional Caesar Salad’s are romaine lettuce, parmesan cheese, and anchovies. While it’s easy these days to find store-bought replacements for shredded parmesan cheese, replacing anchovies is a bit more difficult, although adding capers would do in a pinch.
You can still make yourself a tasty salad, even it isn’t exactly classic. You’ll want to allow about one quarter of a cup of dressing for every 3 cups of romaine.
This dressing will also pair well with kale
You could also make your Caesar with kale instead of romaine. You’ll want to massage the kale first. This is exactly like it sounds – put your kale leaves in a large bowl, add about a tablespoon of olive oil and another of lemon juice, and use your hands to massage it all in. Give it a minute or two and the kale will get more tender, and thus easier to eat. It also keeps really well like this.
Tips: Making Caesar salad Dressing without eggs or oil
For this recipe, we're replacing the traditional oil with avocado. If you're new to plant-based eating, you may have noticed that avocado is a common ingredient. Avocado is an unusual plant in that it has a relatively high fat content. That's what makes avocado such a great replacement for oil in recipes, including this salad dressing.
Plant-based diets typically exclude eggs, since they come from chickens. For this recipe, we're leaving out the eggs and making up for their flavour with the addition of black salt, also called kala namak.
Black salt is a versatile ingredient in a plant-based eater's pantry. If you can't find it locally, look for it online.
P.S. Check out the photo in the Ingredients section -- you'll see that black salt is actually pink.
Recipe Card
[wprm-recipe id="32003"]
Comments