Vegan Caesar Salad

My mom makes a killer Caesar salad and it was one my favorite dishes growing up. She left the anchovies out of it for me when I went vegetarian, but when I went vegan a couple years later, it was “bye bye Caesar salad” for me. Over the years, I played around with various ingredients to perfect this Vegan Caesar Salad recipe. I think this comes pretty close in flavor to my mom’s original recipe. And my omnivore fiancé even prefers it to dairy-based Caesar salads!

Vegan Caesar Salad - Easy and also Gluten-Free!
Vegan Caesar Salad - Easy and also Gluten-Free!

Notes – Vegan Caesar Salad Recipe

  • This recipe relies on nutritional yeast for its “cheesy flavour”. If you don’t know what that is, check out my post: What is Nutritional Yeast (Nooch)?
  • Use silken tofu and an extra teaspoon of lemon juice if you don’t have vegan mayonnaise.
  • Most crouton recipes call for stale bread, but I use fresh bread as I prefer softer croutons in my salads. This way they don’t irritate the roof of my mouth.
  • I just use my hands to tear the lettuce, but if you use a knife, be sure to use a porcelain or plastic one as metal blades will make the cut edges of the lettuce “rust” prematurely.
  • Add/substitute spinach and/or kale for a super-duper healthy vegan Caesar salad.
  • Sauté some tempeh or tofu strips in a little bit of tamari and add it to the salad to mimic a bacon/chicken Caesar salad.
Vegangela
Vegangela
Vegan Caesar Salad - Easy and also Gluten-Free!

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Vegan Caesar Salad

This Caesar salad is so good, no one will know it’s not the “real thing”! Vegan / Gluten-Free Option

  • Author: Angela @ Vegangela.com
  • Prep Time: 15 mins
  • Cook Time: 15 mins
  • Total Time: 30 mins
  • Yield: 4-6 1x
  • Category: Salad, Side
  • Cuisine: Vegan

Ingredients

Scale
  • 1 head romaine lettuce (called “cos” lettuce in Australia)

Dressing

  • 1/4 cup blanched almonds
  • 1/4 cup vegan mayonnaise
  • 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
  • 2 tbsp lemon juice
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 tbsp capers
  • 1 tbsp dijon mustard
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • salt & pepper, to taste

Garlic Croutons

  • 1 French baguette (or other thick bread such as sourdough or Focaccia – use gluten free if that’s an issue for you)
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 3 tbsp olive oil

Instructions

To make the croutons

  1. Preheat oven to 350F/175C.
  2. Cut the bread into small cubes, about 3 cm thick.
  3. Toss bread cubes with the olive oil and garlic, and place on a baking sheet.
  4. Bake in oven for about 10 minutes, stirring them around about halfway and watching that they don’t burn. Set aside to cool.

To make the salad

  1. Wash and dry lettuce, and tear it into bite-sized pieces. Place into a large salad bowl.
  2. Blend all other ingredients in a blender until smooth. Add 2-3 tablespoons of water, as needed, to achieve desired consistency.
  3. Add dressing and croutons to salad bowl and mix to distribute dressing evenly.

Keywords: almond, caper, dijon, easy, favorite, gluten-free, nutritional yeast, original, under 30 minutes, caesar, salad, vegan

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Vegan Caesar Salad - Easy and also Gluten-Free!

37 thoughts on “Vegan Caesar Salad”

  1. This is so amazingly good and so much better than I remember “real” Caesar tasting like. I made it with Romaine lettuce this week, but I will definitely take your advice and make it with kale next time. I’ll gladly eat kale every day if it has this dressing on it. Thanks!!!

    Reply
  2. this dressing was really good and very close to non vegan caesars. i didn’t have capers so i subbed kalamata olives and it worked out just fine

    Reply
  3. Hi Angela,

    I’m an American expat living in Melbourne. Can you recommend a vegan mayo?
    Thanks so much for your blog – I love it!

    Cay

    Reply
  4. I made this it was just awesome. I wanted to thin it out for a dipping sauce I blitzed up 1/2 cup of white kidney beans and it was perfect!!! Thanks for your recipies you make it very easy.

    Reply
  5. Man, I’m beggining to like you al lot!!! I though I was the only one that had problems with croutons irritating the roof of my mouth! lol

    Reply
  6. I just wanted to drop in and introduce myself. I am not vegan, but am dipping my toe in the water. I’ve never known anyone else who was vegan or raw so people like you are very helpful to those of us who are out of their element. I had to try this, and like some others had to sub a couple of items, but still was pretty good. I made it with kale, because that’s what I had on hand. If you wouldn’t mind, please drop me an e-mail and let me know how you made this successful in your life. Thanks!

    Reply
  7. Hey I just tried this recipe and it was absolutely delicious i must say caesar salads is one thing that i definitely used to miss but this was a really good substitute even better! I didn’t have the yeast and i ended up adding a drizzle of olive oil and a little bit more lemon at the end. Next time I’m going to try using silken tofu, or making my own fresh mayo and using that. I’m going through a few more of your recipes tonight..keep it up!

    Reply
  8. This was great!

    I omitted the capers (because I’m not a fan) and I found the dressing was just a bit too acidic, so I added about a teaspoon of agave syrup and it added just the right balance!

    Putting this in my vegan recipe “vault”.

    thanks so much!

    Reply
  9. I finally got around to making this tonight (w/ sunflower seeds b/c I didn’t have almonds, no capers either…) It was still delicious! Will make again w/ capers. Thanks for the recipe!

    Reply
    • Hi Debbie – I’m glad you liked it. Thanks for taking the time to leave feedback. The capers add a sharp taste that makes it really taste like “real” Caesar… let me know what you think next time. All the best!

      Reply
  10. This is great – I made mine with cashews as I was out of almonds and I added horseradish as I was out of capers and I didn’t have soy mayo, but the mixture was super creamy and delicious without it. I also had ciabatta sliced and toasted with some earth balance and cut into small chunks which was tasty in place of focaccia and also added some grilled slices of firm savory tofu (also in chunks).
    Thanks so much for sharing all your recipes and pictures – it totally gives this kitchen-challenged vegan some really great and easy ideas which are fun to make and even more fun to eat :0) Merci beaucoup!

    Reply
    • Hi Rebecca – Thanks for the kind words and taking the time to comment. I like the idea of using cashews – much more raw & healthy that way. Horseradish is a great idea too! All the best and keep in touch! 🙂

      Reply
  11. Now that you mention spinach in a Caesar salad, I think that will be my dinner! I like your idea of using the capers. Do you think if I used non-blanched almonds the dressing would be gritty? I have a major raw almond overload and this would be a good excuse to use some! Thanks!!

    Reply
    • Hi Jodi – Thanks for your comment. Non-blanched almonds might make the dressing a bit gritty and the color a bit darker, but it’s not like this is a really “delicate” salad anyway so I don’t think it will be a big problem. Let me know how it works for you, I’m curious 🙂

      Reply
      • Hi Angela, I tried this tonight for dinner and you were right! The dressing is a little gritty (and you can see the specs of brown in it), but I really don’t mind it. I have no bread to make it a true Caesar salad, so I instead I used spinach and added avocado and it is very very good! I would go for the blanched almonds in the traditional salad. In a pinch these work just as well though!

        Reply
    • Bonjour Dan! No, I haven’t posted that one yet but now that you mention it, I’ll post it next week or so. Thanks for the reminder and hope you are well! x

      Reply
  12. It looks great! I had no idea there were plastic lettuce knives until I started hanging out at Williams Sonoma! Now I use one all of the time!

    Reply
    • Thanks for your comment Kristina. Just realized I mis-spelled Caesar… all fixed now, haha! You’re right – I don’t think most people would know that it’s vegan!

      Reply
  13. Mmm, I’ve never tried using capers in a caesar dressing before! I think I’ll have to give that a go next time, something to give it a rich and full flavor without the fish!

    You know, I hated caesar salad until I made it myself as a vegan. Funny how that works!

    Reply
    • Hi Allysia – Thanks for your comment. Capers really add a lot of flavor to this – let me know what you think if you try it. That’s great that you only like Caesar now – it’s much healthier this way! 🙂

      Reply

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