I’m on a salad kick. When this happens I embrace it.

Enter my new favorite vegan caesar salad. This is a recipe I’ve been tweaking for a few years now. I’ve shared a couple different versions on the blog before, but I think this one is the very best.

It all starts with the creamy rich dressing and then of course the crunchy toppings. The thing I’m always trying to experiment with for this typically non-vegan dressing is how to replace the anchovies. They add a distinct flavor to caesar dressing and one that is hard to replicate with a vegan substitution.

I’ve used kelp granules before to add a bit of a salty fish flavor and it worked pretty well. Kelp can be a more difficult ingredient to find, so last year I got to playing with this recipe again and a light bulb went off.

What about nori!? You know, sushi wrappers! And instead of a fully cashew based dressing, I added chickpeas to the dressing to lighten it up a bit. The result was fantastic.

For this latest version I made a few final tweaks and I think am finally settled on my favorite vegan caesar dressing.