Hizzah! Caesar salads are the bee’s knees and one of the things I always wanted but never ate due to regular caesar dressing’s nasty ingredients. I made an incredible vegan caesar salad last night for dinner and am totally excited to be able to share it with you.

What you will need for your dressing:

• 1/3 cup almonds
• 3/4 cup tofu (i’ve made this dressing with both firm and soft and it turned out fine)
• 4 garlic cloves (cut into pieces)
• 1/4 c extra virgin olive oil
• 2-3 T fresh lemon juice
• 1.5 T capers
• 4 t caper brine
• 1 t sugar
• 1/2 t dry mustard powder
• dash of sea salt, dash of fresh ground pepper

To start your dressing, first chop your almonds in your food processor until they’re in small peices. Next add your tofu, garlic and olive oil and mix until creamy. Add the rest of your ingredients and mix until all ingredients are thoroughly combined. Take a taste test and see if it needs anything else. This dressing is thick–if you want thinner dressing use a little less tofu or try adding water.

Transfer your dressing into a bowl, cover and store in your refrigerator for about an hour to let the flavors combine and get magical together.

I made my usual vegan parmesan cheese for the salad. Instead of using romaine, I used spinach because I love it so. My dressing didn’t really coat the salad like it normally does but I think thats because I used spinach. Romaine holds water whereas spinach doesn’t. The water in and on the romaine helps spread the dressing more.

My croutons were made by using extra virgin olive oil (about 1/4 cup maybe a little more), fresh garlic (diced) and dried rosemary tossed together with some sprouted bread (3 slices) that I cut into small pieces. Cook your croutons in a 400 degree oven for about 10 minutes (tossing around after the first 5) and then turn the temp down to 350 for another 2-3 minutes. The croutons are going to start to burn if they’re left in the 400 degree oven for much longer but you still want to cook some of the oil off of them. I encourage you to try different temperatures to make the perfect crouton. Mine were a little over done but I like burned toast so there ya go.

Once I plated my salads, tossed in dressing, I added tempeh (cooked in vegetable stock, soy sauce and dried garlic) and grilled red onions (cooked in oil with rosemary).