A really good Caesar salad is hard to beat.
It’s one of our favourite salads and, in our opinion, we take it to the next level with miso paste, which adds depth and intensity to our cashew-based Caesar sauce.
Notes:
- This recipe will serve 4 as a light meal. If you want to enjoy this as a dinner, we recommend adding a source of protein such as chickpeas.
- We use unsweetened soy milk, but other varieties will also work such as oat or almond. If you use sweetened plant-based milk, the sauce might become overly-sweet and unpleasant.
- If possible, we recommend using extra-virgin olive oil for the sauce, which has a stronger flavour and better texture compared to regular olive oil.
- Once you’ve combined the sauce and parmesan with the salad, this salad is best enjoyed as soon as possible. However you can make the sauce and parmesan in advance. Both will keep well for 1-2 days if stored in the fridge in air-tight containers.
We gut you!
- Recent studies have shown that maintaining a good gut is an important way to support your immune, heart and brain health.
- If you’ve been following us for a while, you’ll know we love miso. For this salad, we use an unpasteurised miso paste – which means it contains vital probiotics – aka friendly bacteria – that play a crucial role in maintaining good gut health.
- What’s more, our sauce is made using cashews, which contain dietary fibre that feeds the bacteria in your gut.
If you want to increase the amount of gut-friendly foods in this dish, you can try adding more fibre-rich foods such as chickpeas or beans, which you can simply drain from a tin and stir into the salad when you’re ready to serve.
Enjoy!
Miso Caesar Salad
Ingredients
- 60 g cashews
- 120 g crusty bread, we use ciabatta
- olive oil
- salt + pepper
- 1 tbsp white miso paste, see notes
- 1/2 lemon, juice only
- 120 ml unsweetened plant-based milk
- 2 sweet gem lettuce, chopped
- 3 tbsp capers
For the cashew parmesan:
- 60 g cashews
- 2 tbsp nutritional yeast
- 1/4 tsp garlic powder
Method
- Preheat the oven to 180°C fan / 400°F fan.
- Add the cashews to a bowl and cover with hot water from a kettle. Leave to one side to soften for 10 minutes.
- Slice the bread into small pieces to make your croutons. Add to a tray, drizzle with olive oil and season with pinches of salt and pepper. Then bake for 12-14 mins or until golden.
- Drain the cashews and add them to a blender along with the miso paste, lemon juice, milk, 1/2 teaspoon of pepper and 3 tablespoons of olive oil. Blend until smooth, then set aside.
- Next add the cashew parmesan ingredients to a food processor, along with a pinch of salt. Process into a fine crumb, then set aside.
- Add the chopped lettuce and capers to a large mixing bowl. Pour in most of the miso sauce and most of the cashew parmesan. Mix well, then season to taste with more salt if necessary and gently stir in the golden croutons. Top with the remaining sauce and parmesan to serve. Enjoy!