A creamy vegan caesar dressing enrobes fresh romaine lettuce, crunchy croutons, and crispy blackened chickpeas to make this take on a vegan caesar salad.
Drain and rinse the soaked cashew pieces. Add them to a blender along with the rest of the vegan caesar dressing ingredients, and combine until smooth, stopping to scrape down the sides if needed. if needed to aid blending, add a tablespoon of water at a time. Season to taste with additional salt and pepper.
Leftover vegan caesar dressing keeps for about a week in the fridge. Best used cold.
For the vegan caesar salad:
Cool the dressing in the refrigerator (or for just a few minutes in the freezer) if needed to get it cold for serving.
Toss the romaine lettuce with as much dressing as you would like, then mix in blackened chickpeas, croutons, and sprinkle with vegan parmesan if using. Serve cold.
Notes
NUTRITION: Nutrition facts assume all of the dressing is used (probably not realistic) and omit croutons and vegan parmesan, but do include the chickpeas.LOWER FAT VERSION: (Tested!) Reduce the cashews to 1/3 cup, reduce the olive oil to 1 tbsp, and add 3 tbsp aquafaba (cooking liquid from chickpeas). If you're making the blackened chickpeas using canned beans, you can use the liquid from that same can.GLUTEN-FREE/GRAIN-FREE: Skip the croutons entirely or replace them with a gluten-free version, or tortilla chip crumbles (whaaaat...?? Yeah, I went there).