August heat brings us delicious sweet tomatoes and crunchy cucumbers. One of our favorite ways to eat these are in this delicious Caesar salad. If you don’t want to cook the crispy chickpeas you can purchase these. Many natural food stores sell some sort of chickpea snack often found near other small snacks.
Serves: 2-4 as a meal; 6-8 as a side
Time: 1 hr
Ingredients
1 head lettuce
1 medium cucumber, chopped
2 cups crispy chickpeas
1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
1 bell pepper, cored and sliced
1/2 cup sliced radish
2 medium carrots cut into thin coins
6 tbsp capers
salt
For the dressing:
3/4 cup soaked cashews
1/2 cup water
3 tbsp olive oil
4 tsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp mustard powder
3/4 tsp garlic powder
1 clove garlic
1/4 tsp caper liquid
2 tsp capers
3/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
Optional garnish:
2 tbsp sesame seeds
2 tbsp nutritional yeast
Wash, spin or drip dry, and chop the lettuce. Rinse and slice all the veggies. Camille likes to remove the cucumber seeds by slicing the cucumber in half and scooping them out with a spoon before chopping the cucumber up into small bits. This can keep the cucumber extra crunchy, but if you love the seeds feel free to leave them in.
Scoop out 6 tbsp of capers and remove the liquid from them. Don’t throw this liquid away, as you will use some in the dressing. Heat a small pan with 1 tbsp olive oil until hot but not smoking. Add the capers to the hot oil. Then salt generously. Stir constantly for about 7 minutes until they are dark and slightly crispy but not blackened. Remove from oil and set aside.
If you are using the optional garnish, blend the sesame seeds and nutritional yeast together in a dry blender until it is powdery. Set aside. Do this step before mixing the salad dressing ingredients to save on dish washing and because once the blender is wet it is impossible to blend the dry garnish.
Next, put all the salad dressing ingredients in the blender and blend until smooth.
Anne’s favorite way to serve this salad is to put the lettuce and salad dressing in a bowl and toss until completely coated. Then add the toppings and enjoy!
