If you shy away from salads because you find yourself hungry 45 minutes after eating one, you aren't alone. This Kale Caesar salad is not your average salad. It's actually filling, creamy and crunchy. Plus, this is a vegan caesar salad, so no bloating, cramping or bathroom runs from a dairy-filled lunch.
This combo of flavors is worth packing in your lunch.
Kale Caesar Salad Tips
Kale is clearly the star of this salad and it's no wonder! This superfood is hearty and a bit more filling than romaine lettuce. If kale isn't your favorite then swap for dark romaine or do half romaine, half kale and enjoy!
The Garlic Lemon Aioli is super easy to make, remember to give your cashews time to soak. If you forget to soak them ahead of time, pour hot water over them and let them sit for 10-15 minutes. The drain and add to the recipe.
The last time I made this kale caesar salad I actually roasted the chickpeas with some olive oil and seasoning and you have to try this! It gives them a crouton-like texture to add extra crunch to your lunch.
How to Make a Caesar Salad Vegan
I've got two drool-worthy secrets to making a vegan caesar salad and still enjoy it. First, I smother the whole creation with my Garlic Lemon Aioli. It is seriously good and super easy to make. If you forget to soak the cashews ahead of time then just pour some hot water over them and let them sit for 10 minutes before draining and using.
Second, I have a recipe for vegan Parmesan Cheese that totally tastes like the real deal and yet is completely dairy-free. I keep a jar of this wonderful creation on hand at all times since it goes with almost everything.
Vegan doesn't have to be gross, less flavorful or boring. This kale caesar salad still has the creamy dressing and the crunch. It fills me up and doesn't give me the uncomfortable side effects that dairy does.
Vegan Caesar Salad FAQs
It depends on what's in it. The one you get at a restaurant, drowning in dressing and covered in croutons probably isn't. Yet my version is 100% plant-based, creamy and filling.
Vegan Caesar salad omits the cheese and dairy-based dressing, replacing them with vegan ingredients. My salad has a vegan cheese sprinkle (that's wonderful!) as well as a dairy-free dressing that you might need to double because it's so good.
Caesar dressing is dairy-based, which makes it vegetarian yet not vegan. My Kale Caesar salad has a cashew garlic aioli that is super creamy and flavorful and 100% vegan.
Tis' The Season for Salads
With Spring rapidly approaching I know many of us are starting to plan our kitchen gardens. What is a kitchen garden? Well, it's the perfect place to grow and harvest the ingredients you use daily. I'm talking leafy greens, herbs and your favorite veggies. Then toss them into one of these epic salads. Trust me when I say everything tastes better when you know you grew it yourself:
- Avocado Caprese Salad
- Healthy Taco Salad
- Vegan Potato Salad
- Vegetarian Noodle Salad
- Mixed Greens Salad
- Sweet Potato Taco Salad
- Grated Carrot Salad
Simple Salad Dressings
A great salad has a great dressing. And a great dressing doesn't come from a store. Here are some super simple recipes that will have you cleaning out your fridge to make room for all your new creations:
- Lemon Vinaigrette
- Citrus Tahini Dressing
- Cashew Garlic Aioli
- Roasted Pear Vinaigrette
- Lemon Tarragon Dressing
- Strawberry Basil Vinaigrette
Don't forget to leave a comment and review to let me know how your Vegan Caesar salad turns out! I love sharing my favorite recipes with you.
Kale Caesar Salad
Rate this Recipe Print RecipeIngredients
Garlic Lemon Aioli
- ¼ cup cashews (soaked 1-4 hours)
- 1 garlic clove (peeled)
- ½ teaspoon Dijon mustard
- lemon (squeeze of juice)
Salad Ingredients
- 2 cups kale (stems removed and thinly sliced)
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 tablespoon lemon (juiced)
- ½ cup canned chickpeas (drained and rinsed)
- 2 tablespoon pepitas
- dash sea salt
- dash ground black pepper
- 1 tablespoon vegan parmesan cheese
Instructions
- In a food processor, puree the Garlic Lemon Aioli ingredients until creamy. If needed, add a few tablespoons of water. The mixture should be thick and creamy.
- Place the kale in a large serving bowl and drizzle it with oil. With clean hands, gently massage the kale until tenderized (5 minutes, at most). Squeeze the lemon juice over the top.
- Mix in the chickpeas and Cashew Garlic Aioli until well combined.
- Serve with pepitas and Vegan Parmesan Cheese.
Video
Notes
- Soaking the cashews is necessary to get the aioli creamy.
- Massaging the kale helps relax the leaves as well as takes out some of the bitterness.
- If you don't have kale on hand, swap with spinach or romaine lettuce.
- Kale does have a bite, so if you're new to kale then use half kale, half romaine to start.
- Toasting the chickpeas slightly before adding gives them a crouton-like texture.
Tanjala G.
This salad was so good I didn’t even need dressing!
Simple Green Smoothies
Awesome, so glad you enjoyed it. Keep rawkin the salads!
Rachelle Mendoza
Kale is king and the dressing is an incredibly innovative wholesome twist on a popular unhealthy Caesar
Jennifer Alexander
Good, but not a favorite. I did not roast the chickpeas and pepitas, but definitely would try that next time.
Karla K
This salad surprised me! I normally pass on Caesar salad since I like veggie toppings but this came together well. Also, combining pepitas with chick peas makes them so much easier and enjoyable to eat on a salad due to the balance of texture with the seed crunch. The dressing was pretty good, but after tasting it I added a bit of Worcestershire sauce to give it more of a true Caesar flavor (I know, not vegan, but delicious!). The extra lemon used in the kale prior to mixing in the main sauce also really helped. I admit to not massaging my kale, but I purposely bought baby kale to avoid that and it made this salad come together very quickly. This will get made often, as long as I have cashews on hand.
Simple Green Smoothies
Yes, gotta love a little crunch in your salad.
Eva McGuire
A quick and easy salad with an amazing dressing. Great as a side or healthy snack.
Vicki Vallejos
This is my favorite salad of the challenge! I’ve always enjoyed kale; however, I have never tried massaging it with olive oil before and I think that made a huge difference in the flavor. The sprinkles and the cashew AIOLI really added flavor that tasted faintly of a real Caesar salad dressing. It is definitely a keeper!
Barbara
Really enjoyed this salad. I don’t think the topping tasted like cheese but it was good. Took me awhile to get the aioli creamy in my small food processor but it was very tasty. It’s a keeper.
Patricia
Not one of my favorites. I love the real Caesar salad, even though it’s not as healthy and I’m not a fan of kale.
Catherine Read
I liked the flavor of this salad ! I love new recipes for kale. I can grow kale!
Justina
Kale me more. I live ceaser salad. It is my go-to lunch salad. I will be making this one more often.
Heather Ford
This is the first time I enjoyed a fully kale salad. I love cooked kale and kale chips. I usually mix it with other greens because it has such a tough texture when it's raw. I never knew massaging it works so well. The dressing is very good. This challenge is the first time I have ever made my own dressings using nuts. The recipes are all so easy to follow.
jan
I am prejudice because kale is my favorite! Easy and delicious!
Tina S
Great salad. Only gave it 4 stars because I am not a huge fan of chick peas in a salad, however my husband loves them. Loved the addition of pepitas (I try to keep them on hand). And I love a dressing made with lemon & mustard!
Simple Green Smoothies
I'm so glad you both enjoyed it (minus chickpeas for you!)
Karyn
It was ok, but I wouldn't call this a caesar salad. I found the dressing to have a sweetness and lacked the savouriness that I expect with caesar dressing.
Also take the step to salt and oil massage the kale before dressing
Simple Green Smoothies
Feel free to make this recipe your own and adjust as needed!
HB
Like spinach better. Thanks for the recipes
Allison Schalck
Liked it, though felt it was missing something. Loved the kale and the cheese sprinkles!
Kimber
Such a good salad. I love Caesar salads. The aioli really made this salad complete.
Simple Green Smoothies
Keep on rawkin it, so glad you loved it!
Lynn
Absolutely delicious. I used mixed leafy greens. Not a kale fan, but I would like to try massaging it sometime and or soaking it in the dressing. Easy to make but the aioli was fairly messy in my VitaMix.
Arleen Sharp
Love a good Caesar Salad and this is gooood. I was so excited to have success with the aioli & it had amazing flavor. It seems like somewhat of a miracle that you can take a few ingredients, mix them together and get such a dramatic rich sauce. The combination of kale and chic peas went well together in this Caesar Salad.
Jennifer Leinhos
I wasn’t feeling good today, so my husband made this salad. Since I already had cashew cream made, I just told him to add garlic and Dijon. So it was ready in a flash. This is a wonderful salad, as is. But you could also play with it a bit and add roasted chicken, or roast the garbanzo beans for a little extra crunch. I also love the vegan cheese sprinkle. I always keep a jar in the fridge to add to salads, soups or spaghetti. Thanks to hubby for keeping me on track and picking up the slack. Lovely dinner.
Judie
So yummy!! Creamy dressing was delicious!! Definitely will make again!!
Dukh Niwaran
To our surprise, this tasted delicious and my husband even ate a kale salad and liked it!
Supreet Jaiswal
Garlic aioli was so bomb and was a good dressing for the ceaser salad. I added some extras to make a whole meal and it turned out so well! Very different but so yummy ☺️
Martha Silbaugh
Usually kale is not my favorite but it was yummy in this recipe. As usual the dressing was delicious.
Sandy W
Salad challenge: Day 9. I doubled the salad (except the dressing) and we had it as a meal, and it was quite satisfying. Although it wasn’t my favorite, it was still quite tasty.
Stefanie
This is my favorite salad by far. I love the great flavor of the dressing and it is also easy to make. This salad is delicious and healthy and great for a side or a meal.
Nidia Gago
Amazing dressing. Pine nuts as a topping made the caesar perfect
Dani
What's the optimal temperature and time to toast the garbanzo beans? Having them be crunchy would sway me to rate this five instead of four stars. My boyfriend said he'd give it five stars. He said it tasted just like a Caesar salad; I told them that's because it is! He prepared it without ever even reading the title to notice!
Jim Rudolph
This salad is the best! I've never had to be convinced to like kale. Just eating it always makes me feel healthy. One very good tip is to toast every nut or seed you use in cooking. It triples the flavor!
Simple Green Smoothies
Wonderful suggestion, I'm going to try that next time!
Simple Green Smoothies
That's a great question. We recommend 425 degrees for 20-30 minutes but every oven is different so you may need to adjust accordingly.https://www.loveandlemons.com/roasted-chickpeas/
Hk
I made some edits. More veggies. Less dressing and no cashews for mine. This isn’t a salad I tend to like but I still enjoyed it and I’m really enjoying this challenge as it has been stretching me to get variety each day!
Aja
This one was soo goood! The vegan cheese added just right the touch!
Stephanie C
Fabulous!!! Everything about is amazing. I added olive oil to the aioli.
Lisa
Delicious and satisfying. Prepping the kale made all the difference in the world.
Karen
The dressing was awesome. Adding that recipe to my dressing favorites.
Meagan
You can’t go wrong with this salad. A little more prep If you haven’t any ingredients already made but so worth it. Tonight I tried it with roasted sweet potatoes, roasted chick peas and sliced avocado as well. Very much a winner! I could pour the garlic aioli on everything
Simple Green Smoothies
Oh, that sounds so good!
Liz
A different take on the traditional Caesar salad. It took a bit to make the cheese sprinkles and aioli. It tasted similar to a Caesar, but just not quite what I would want. I used Romaine since I didn't have any kale available.
Tammy Uyeda
This Vegan Kale Caesar Salad hit all the right notes with the hearty kale, creamy/lemony/garlic aioli, and crunchy pepitas - not to mention the umami punch the “cheese” sprinkle added to this salad. Yum! Delicious as a side salad or add in some roasted sweet potato, avocado and/or chick peas to make this even heartier. A winner in our books!
Stephanie L
This salad is amazing! I love kale 🙂
Linda
Another interesting and tasty salad.I did not do the topping mixture, just the pepitas.
Sylvia
I really enjoyed this salad the dressing was so tasty it was all very easy to make.
Karyl
Not my favorite, probably because I love Caesar Salad. I had to add a lot of additional water to get the creamy texture right on the aioli—wish that I had kept the soaking water for added flavor. Maybe it was my food processor, but I struggled to get this right. Kale was fine, but I had to massage it for almost the full 5 minutes. Topping was tasty!
Patricia T.
I enjoy kale and this recipe is a tasty way to help get me to my plant-based diet goals.
Tammie
Very Good,
Valerie Parker
My family loves kale so we were excited to try this one. We don’t own a good processor so the dressing was difficult but over all it was delicious love the zest it has and it is very filling. Prep was easy
Sally Blair
Humm. It was a lot of prep and ended up a bit soggy. The taste was interesting but not my favorite. My hubby liked it, rating it 8 out of 10.
Kathryn
This is my favorite recipe hands down. I loved the aioli, cheez bits and lemony garlic taste just like in a Caesar salad. One thing I will change will be to apply the kale in the dressing (lemon garlic, not the aioli) ahead of time to tame the kale, soften it make the favor burst a bit more. Kale is always better soaked after a day in whatever dressing. That’s the only thing I’ll change to this tasty treat!
Marcia Ugalde
I use kale in all my salads so this is one of my favorites. I added a few more items: cucumber, heirloom tomatoes, avocado, hummus, zucchini, strawberries, red pepper, and almonds,
So good
Simple Green Smoothies
Way to make this salad your own, it sounds so yummy!
Darcy
I liked the salad, but too much garlic.
Sylvia
I really enjoyed this salad the dressing was so tasty it was all very easy to make.
Patty
I had never heard about massaging kale. That was really interesting. I might be able to get my parents to eat it like that. I loved the salad and the dressing. I usually don’t put a lot of dressing on my salads, but really enjoyed knowing that this dressing was full of delicious healthy goodness.
Simple Green Smoothies
Love that you are learning new tricks along the way!
Maggie Golding
Garlic aioli really makes it - love this as a vegan option
Jessica Cicero
Really good! I like the process of massaging the kale to soften it. It really lightens the flavor. Would definitely do again, maybe with some small adjustments.
Becky A.
Pretty good.
Lynne L
not a big fan of caesar salads, but this was surprisingly good
Simple Green Smoothies
I love happy surprises, especially when it's a yummy salad!
Rose
An interesting take on a classic!
Kari Thom
Delicious Kale Caesar Salad! I used kale from the garden and also included Italian parsley and radishes. I loved having almonds on it.
Shannon Johnson
My husband really wanted to dislike this salad but it was just that good! He even thought there was cheese in there! I ended up using almonds for my dressing, worked out ok. Next time will be better after practice!
Bonnie Ashcroft
I appreciated all the tips, but feel like the salad was very labor intensive. Maybe it just hit on a really busy day. I may try it again.
Simple Green Smoothies
OMG, I love it! Everything is always better with practice!
Lynn Gregerson
I like kale and learned about massaging it a while back. This salad was really good! I did roast the chickpeas and pepitas. I've never made a dressing with cashews; It was surprisingly creamy, but I cheated and added avocado. I will now try again sometime without the avocado since so many people raved about it!
Dawn
I like Kale Yeah! I like kale! This recipe was really good and filling as a meal! It's very quick and easy to put together (after the cashews soaked) and making the aioli. I could see this as a to-go lunch too.
Simple Green Smoothies
Oh, KALE yeah! 😉
Shari Heal
Very tasty. I had a hard time making the dressing, though. There just wasn’t enough of it to work properly. I tried first in my food processor and added extra water, but it wasn’t enough, so I transferred it to my Vitamix, using the smaller blender jug (I don’t have the blending bowl attachment yet), but still not much luck. I would definitely double the dressing recipe next time.