Vegan Caesar Salad & the Reason You May Not Like Kale

Caesar salad was always my favorite thing ever. As a kid I'd drown my lettuce in caesar dressing and revel in how good it tasted. No joke, I LOVED Caesar salad. So the other day, when I had a massive craving for it, I knew exactly what to do. I set out to make the perfect vegan Caesar salad, and I did just that. I failed a few times, but this dressing is all worth it... you absolutely have to try it.

From the very start, I knew I wanted to use tahini and lemons as the two main ingredients in my salad dressing, as I knew people often used these two things to create a creamy vegan dressing. And for good reason. The tahini and lemon, combined with the other ingredients proved to make the most delightful dressing. Topped with crispy garlic chickpeas and toasted corn tortilla strips, this salad was most certainly a winner.

Alright, now before I get to the recipe, let's talk about kale. Lots of people love it, and lots of people hate it. I'd argue however, that many people who claim to hate this green, leafy vegetable are simply preparing it wrong. For years and years I claimed that I didn't like kale. I decided I couldn't handle it's strong taste and I swore it off completely. But this key trick saved my life. Here it is... you need to massage your kale. Sound weird? Maybe. Let me explain.

Kale has a very tough cell structure. For this reason, it's very strong in flavor and firm in texture, making it very difficult to digest. If you massage your kale well before you eat it, you will soften the kale significantly and drastically decrease it's strong flavor. But that's not all. Kale, when left alone, is very difficult for our stomachs to digest due to its cell structure. For this reason, it's a very strenuous task for our bodies to extract all the nutrients that kale has to offer during the digestion process. If we massage the kale before eating it, it makes it much softer and much easier to digest, the same way it's easier to digest food which has been chewed well. Our bodies are then able to absorb many more nutrients from this leafy green, and the flavor won't seem nearly as strong. As a matter of fact, when massaged, kale often takes on the flavor of whatever dressing is used on it.

To massage your kale, simply break the leafy part away from the stem, wash it, and place it in a bowl. Pour your dressing of choice over the kale (I recommend this vegan caesar), and begin to massage the dressing into the kale with your hands. Do this until the kale has softened and you feel it's absorbed the dressing. And voila, just like that, you're on your way to getting loads and loads of nutrients.

Now, head over to my instagram (@cleaneatsbyrach) for this dressing recipe... it's not entirely my own so I can't post it as my original recipe :)) However, for reference, I topped my salad with crispy garlic chickpeas that I made on my stove (recipe coming soon) and I cut and toasted a corn tortilla (with a little evoo & salt) in the oven to throw on top! Enjoy guys!!!!

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