Vegan Grilled Ceasar Salad

A recipe by Julia

My Tasty Enemy: Welcome to “My Tasty Enemy,“ where we face our biggest culinary enemies in the kitchen. Julia isn’t fond of pineapple, Brussels sprouts and endives, Isa dislikes kohlrabi, mango, and radishes. Will we still find recipes that somehow make us like these ingredients?

A, well, healthyish salad … that tastes amazing nevertheless. We’ve never been fans of counting calories, so we won’t start it now, but of course we know about the bad reputation of „unhealthy“ ceasar salad. So to help out romaine lettuce to not feel that bad alone, we invited his buddy endive today and this is also my Tasty Enemy of today! So far, I strongly connect endives with my guinea pigs that I had when I was a child. They LOVED endives while I probably didn't prepare them right until today so they often turned out too bitter. Let's see what happens today.

One important thing before we start: Worcestershire sauce is usually not vegan (not even vegetarian) becauce they contain anchovies. BUT of course there are already vegan sauces that you’ll get online or even in the supermarket.

Grilled Chicoree Caesar Salad

4 servings

25 minutes

Ingredients

For the salad

2 chicory
2 romaine lettuce

For the croutons

1 bread roll
1 tbsp (15 ml / 0.5 oz) olive oil
0.25 tsp garlic powder
salt
pepper

For the dressing

50 g (0.25 cup) vegan mayo
50 g (3.5 tbsp) vegan plain yogurt
2 tbsp (30 g / 1 oz) cashew butter
1 garlic clove
1 tbsp (15 ml / 0.5 oz) lemon juice
1 tbsp (15 ml / 0.5 oz) apple cider vinegar
1 tbsp nutritional yeast
1 tbsp (15 ml / 0.5 oz) olive oil
1 tbsp mustard
1 tbsp capers
1 tbsp whole mustard seeds
salt
pepper

For serving

vegan parmesan cheese

Instructions

For the croutons, first preheat the oven to 200 °C / 390 °F (convection). Cut or tear the bread roll into small pieces. Spread on a baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil, and season with salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Bake the croutons for approx. 10 minutes until they're golden brown and crispy. Remove from the oven and let cool.
Meanwhile, for the dressing, mix vegan mayo and yogurt, cashew butter, one grated garlic clove, lemon juice, apple cider vinegar, nutritional yeast, olive oil, mustard, capers, and whole mustard seeds. Season with salt, pepper, and more lemon juice or nutritional yeast to taste if desired.
Halve the chicory and romaine lettuce so the leaves still hold together. In a grill pan with some oil, cook for approx. 5 minutes until the salads have grill marks.
To serve, spread the dressing on a large platter and arrange the grilled salads on top. Sprinkle with the crispy croutons and freshly grated vegan parmesan cheese.

So how did it taste?
Boom, that was delicious! Grilled endives are really nice, especially combined with this dressing. It doesn't taste bitter at all and is still crisp. Tasty Enemy conquered!