This veggie Crispy broccoli Caesar salad is the most satisfying vegetable I’ve ever made!

Before I begin, thank you for the kind words and messages you have given me over the past week. I’m fine. I was focusing on my mom as she was dealing with the loss of a loved one and some challenges in my own life. As usual, I missed the weekend reading, but I’ll be back this weekend.

In the meantime, I’ve been looking for reassuring recipes, as I’ve been doing throughout the whirlwind of 2020. Salads aren’t usually classified as comfort food, but I’ve found a lot of them to be very comforting! The same goes for almost all pasta salads, tahini mustard sweet potato salads, protein-rich legumes and quinoa salads, and other hearty salads I make regularly. I love green vegetables, and I love them even more when they become carriers of nutritious grains and beans.

My crispy broccoli Caesar inspiration

This vegetarian Caesar was inspired by the local New York restaurant Lekka Burger. Lekka Burger features traditional dinner food: burgers, milkshakes, French fries, and soft service. However, all the dishes are vegan, and they are not just imitations of traditional dishes. They feature global flavors—from Masala burgers with crispy papaya and coconut chutney to Qatari sumac fries—and unusual flavors, such as kosher milkshakes.

When I first ate at Lekka Burger, my two favorite dishes weren’t my burger or fries, which is surprising. Both dishes were great, but I was wowed by the Lekka milkshake and cauliflower Caesar salad. The latter features nori Caesar sauce, smoked croutons, and romaine lettuce. It was unexpectedly complex, full of texture, and salty.

I wouldn’t even try to recreate Lekka’s Heavenly milkshake at home. (I need to perfect my vegan soft-drink game first.) But I’ve been thinking about Caesar salad since I first tried it. Last week, inspired by Amanda Cohen’s work, I started thinking about how to make a dress of my own.

Some old, some new

This crunchy vegan Caesar salad features a familiar dressing and two new ingredients—first, the crunchy broccoli, which is also the name of this salad.

The Lekka Burger Caesar uses cauliflower (sometimes called baby cauliflower, though not strictly speaking) instead of broccoli. I love cauliflower because of its sweet and mild taste and its easy preparation and cooking. That said, regular broccoli is usually cheaper and easier to find, so I ultimately chose to test this recipe with it. You can use broccoli or cauliflower in salads, depending on what you have.

The flower stems of broccoli are crispy and tasty in a salad. However, I recommend you chop and roast as many broccoli stems as possible. If you want to save the cauliflower stems for another recipe, broccoli stem stir-fry is my favorite.

Another (for me) new twist I made to the Caesar salad was to use fresh breadcrumbs in the recipe instead of croutons. I love how these breadcrumbs work: they disperse more quickly than croutons, so there’s a bit of bread in every bite. Making breadcrumbs requires using a food processor, so if you don’t want to clean an item, you can use croutons instead.

In any case, you would start with three slices of bread and cut them into cubes. Afterward, you can whip them in a processor to make fresh breadcrumbs, toast them, or pop them in the oven. The bread is toasted with broccoli, which helps simplify the preparation process.

Crispy broccoli Caesar salad with garnish

I used traditional garnishes in addition to cauliflower and breadcrumbs. The sauce is Caesar sauce I got from Power Plates. I love it so much that I don’t even bother testing new vegan Caesar sauce anymore. You may have a little left over after you finish your salad. It’s not a problem, I promise! This sauce is excellent on most salads and cereal bowls and will be kept in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.

I also put vegan Parmesan directly into salads instead of using it as a garnish. My walnut-herb Parmesan and hemp Parmesan are my favorites. However, there are plenty of store-bought vegan Parmesan that I love as well. One is a palma, which tastes very similar to what I make myself. For more cheesy Parmesan, I love the free-wheeling Parmesan and Violife Parmesan.

Lekka’s Caesar uses nori as a seasoning. I added seaweed to the broccoli Caesar as an optional addition. It can be nori flakes, crushed nori flakes, kelp pellets, or bean flakes. All of this will help replace the subtle but distinctive anchovy flavor that usually appears in Caesar salads.

If you don’t have seaweed, don’t worry. The combination of nutritional yeast, vegan Parmesan cheese, and capers in the Caesar sauce adds much umami to this salad and is very tasty. Anything you want to add to the base recipe is just a way to make it more vibrant and complex.

Ingredients

1 medium head of cauliflower or 2 bunches of cauliflower, trimmed and cut into florets and small pieces

Olive or avocado oil spray for grilled broccoli (or 1-2 tablespoons oil, as needed)

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 head romaine lettuce, washed, trimmed, chopped (about 6 cups)

3 slices of farmer’s or sourdough bread (about 100g), cut into cubes (slightly stale/dry is good!)

2 TBSP (16 g) drained capers

Half a cup of homemade vegan Parmesan (like my walnut herb Parmesan) or store-bought vegan Parmesan

Optional: Seaweed, kelp or bean pellets

sauce

3/4 cup (95 g) raw cashews, soak for at least 2 hours and drain

1/2 cup (120 ml) water

1 TSP (5 g) Dijon mustard

1 small clove garlic, coarsely chopped

1 tablespoon of freshly squeezed lemon juice

1 1/2 tablespoons of red wine vinegar

1/2 teaspoon of acceptable salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/4 cup (20 g) nutritional yeast

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 425F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Place the broccoli on the baking sheet and spray with oil, or drizzle with oil and spread it evenly over everything with your hands. Season the broccoli with salt and pepper.
2. Next, prepare the bread. If you want fresh breadcrumbs, put the croutons in a food processor and process them until they are grated (these should be larger, rustic breadcrumbs, not too finely ground). It should take about 30-45 seconds. Put the breadcrumbs on another baking sheet. Place the cubed bread on a separate baking sheet if you want to skip the food processor and make the croutons straight.
3. Put the broccoli and bread in the oven. Toast the breadcrumbs or croutons for 5 minutes, stirring, then toast for another 3-5 minutes or until brown and crisp. Take the bread out of the oven. Bake the cauliflower for 25 minutes until the stems are tender and the cauliflower is browned and crisp.
4. While the broccoli is roasting, prepare the dressing. Place all ingredients in a high-speed blender or food processor and blend well. You should have about 1 1/2 cups of the dressing, and you would use 3/4-1 cup for the recipe. Save the rest for other salads, serve in a bowl, or freeze for up to 6 weeks.
5. Add the romaine lettuce to a large bowl with capers, Parmesan cheese, breadcrumbs or croutons, and nori or beans, if desired. Add 3/4 cup of the dressing and stir well. Add the cauliflower and more seasoning as needed until everything is completely coated. It’s ready, with a sprinkling of vegan Parmesan cheese if you like.