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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 salad, so no bloating, cramping or bathroom runs from a dairy-filled lunch.
Salad isn’t always a filling lunch option, yet I find myself full and satisfied after sitting down to this fun dish. Dress it up to your preference and get ready to enjoy a truly tasty creation.
Ingredients in Kale Caesar Salad
I’ve got two drool-worthy secrets to making this kale caesar salad vegan AND enjoying it even more.
- 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.
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. - I use my Vegan Parmesan Cheese recipe that totally tastes like the real deal and yet is completely dairy-free AND packed with protein. Book! 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.
How to Make Kale Caesar Salad
- Massage the kale: Squeezing the kale with oil helps soften the hard fibers and aids in digestion. It’ll feel strange the first time you do it, but after the first bite you’ll be sold. If kale isn’t your thing, then swap for dark romaine or do half romaine, half kale and enjoy!
- Puree the dressing: I like to do this in my Vitamix Ascent A3500 blender because I get the best results. Yet you can also make the cashew aioli in a food processor or other high-speed blender. You might want to double the dressing to have it easier for the blades to puree everything.
- Add toppings: What you put on top of your salad is what makes it memorable. Try adding garlic baked chickpeas to create more of a crunchy crouton result. And don’t miss out on the Vegan Parmesan Cheese— it’ll become a staple. Toast the pepitas for a soften crunch and a deeper flavor
Salad Prep Tips
You can make kale caesar salad a day or three ahead! I like to prepare the kale, toppings and dressing in separate containers until ready to eat. That way it’s not soggy and all I have to do it mix it together to eat it. Should last 4 to 5 days in the fridge this way.
Kale Caesar Salad
Ingredients
- 4 cups kale stems removed and thinly sliced
- 1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 tbsp lemon juiced
- ½ cup chickpeas canned, drained and rinsed
- 2 tbsp pepitas raw
- dash sea salt
- dash ground black pepper
- 2 tbsp vegan parmesan cheese
Garlic Lemon Aioli
- ¼ cup raw cashews soaked
- 1 garlic clove peeled
- ½ tsp Dijon mustard
- ¼ tsp lemon squeeze of juice
Instructions
- In a food processor or high-speed blender (small container), 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 for 2+ hours helps get the aioli creamy. If you’re short on time, flash soak in boiling water or just blend them raw. Yet you won’t get as creamy of a dressing.
- 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.
Nutrition
Common Questions
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.
This Kale 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.
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!
This one was soo goood! The vegan cheese added just right the touch!
Fabulous!!! Everything about is amazing. I added olive oil to the aioli.
Delicious and satisfying. Prepping the kale made all the difference in the world.
The dressing was awesome. Adding that recipe to my dressing favorites.
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
Oh, that sounds so good!
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.
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!
This salad is amazing! I love kale 🙂
Another interesting and tasty salad.I did not do the topping mixture, just the pepitas.
I really enjoyed this salad the dressing was so tasty it was all very easy to make.
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!
I enjoy kale and this recipe is a tasty way to help get me to my plant-based diet goals.
Very Good,
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
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.
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!