Easy Vegan Caesar Salad

WELCOME TO MY BLOG! I’M EVANGELINE & A MOM. ALSO, AN RMT, AYURVEDA-YOGA COUNSELLOR & HEALTH COACH. I STARTED MY BLOG DURING COVID TO STAY CONNECTED TO MY CLIENTS AND SHARE MY LOVE OF COOKING HEALTHY, AYURVEDIC MEALS.
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This quick and creamy vegan Caesar salad is perfect for warm summer days—light, refreshing, yet deeply satisfying. Inspired by Ayurvedic principles, the dressing blends raw cashews for creaminess, fresh lime juice for tang, seaweed for that classic anchovy-like depth— all gentle, digestion-friendly ingredients, with a little bit of heat from the black pepper and fenugreek leaves to balance it all out. It’s a soothing, balanced alternative to heavier dressings, ready in minutes and full of the bold Caesar flavor you love—without weighing you down.

Easy Vegan Caesar Salad

Yield: 2-4 Servings
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Total Time: 10 minutes

ingredients

• 1 head romaine lettuce

• ¾ cup raw cashews, soaked in warm water for 10 minutes

• 2 Tablespoons lime or lemon juice

• 2 Tablespoons dried seaweed, cut into little pieces

• ⅛ teaspoon soma salt (or natural salt)

• ⅛ teaspoon ground pepper

• ⅛ tsp dried fenugreek leaves

• ⅓ cup spring water
  

Instructions

1. Rinse and prepare the romaine lettuce. You can leave the leaves whole, tear them, or chop them into bite-sized pieces.

2. Drain the soaked cashews and place them in a blender with lime juice, seaweed, soma salt, pepper, fenugreek, and spring water.

3. Blend for about a minute, or until creamy and smooth.

   
   Drizzle the dressing over the romaine lettuce. Serve it plated or casually tossed in a large bowl.

   Add your favourite toppings, like avocado, toasted nuts & seeds or the traditional croutons!

Enjoy!

Ayurvedic Wisdom

In Ayurveda, balance, bliss, and a healthy gut are essential for sustaining well-being. Good digestion is considered one of the foundations of health in Ayurveda. That’s one reason this vegan caesar dressing is made without garlic. While garlic and onions are traditionally used to fight off colds and flus, they can also act like natural antibiotics disrupting not just harmful bacteria but beneficial gut flora as well.

On hot summer days, something rich and creamy can feel deeply satisfying and, more importantly, soothing—especially for pitta dosha, which benefits from pacifying, rich foods, and cooling elements. While treats like ice cream and burgers may offer quick comfort and temporarily soothe pitta, they often lead to clogging, sluggish digestion, and the build-up of ama—partially digested food that burdens the body. This dressing is designed to be gentle, nourishing, and supportive of digestion, while still offering a rich, creamy flavour.

At the same time, it’s important to be mindful of consuming too many raw salads, as they carry qualities that can aggravate vata dosha. Raw foods are typically cold, rough, and dry—qualities that naturally increase vata, which is already light, dry, and mobile by nature. Additionally, the fibrous texture of raw vegetables is harder to break down compared to cooked foods, where the fibres have softened and become easier to digest.

From a nutritional perspective, raw vegetables also contain phytates, oxalates, and goitrogens—naturally occurring compounds that can inhibit mineral absorption, particularly essential nutrients like calcium or zinc, and may gradually deplete the body’s mineral stores if consumed in excess. The cooking process helps reduce these mineral-binding substances, making nutrients and minerals more bioavailable and easier for the body to assimilate. While plant-based foods are highly valued in Ayurveda, it is essential to ensure that a plant-based diet provides adequate amounts of key nutrients, including Vitamin B12, Vitamin D, iron, zinc, calcium, magnesium, and omega-3 fatty acids. These are critical for maintaining long-term vitality and balance.

While raw salads can feel just right for some in the summer, if you tend toward vata imbalances—such as dry skin, bloating, anxiety, or irregular digestion—it’s wise to moderate raw food intake. Supporting vata dosha includes enjoying warm teas, eating mindfully, getting adequate rest, practicing meditation, and cooking with some ghee or pure olive oil to soften the rough, cold, dry qualities.

Guidelines of Ayurvedic cooking offers personalization, balance and proper preparation (samskar) and combination (samyog) of food—choosing the right foods, prepared in ways that support your unique constitution and current state of health.

Signs of Vata Imbalance

• Dry skin, dehydration, or dry mouth

• Stiffness, cracking joints, or experiencing muscle spasms and palpitations

• Constipation, gas, belching, hiccups, irregular digestion

• Poor circulation, irregular sleep, anxiety, fidgeting

• Feeling underweight, emaciated

Vata dosha is considered the “king of the doshas” as my Ayurvedic teacher, Vaidya Rama Kant Mishra, would say. This is because vata governs the intelligence of the body—guiding all physical actions, and circulation, movement, and the precise timing and delivery of all substances like hormones, neurotransmitters, blood, and fluids. Keeping vata balanced is key to maintaining steadiness, ease, and proper function throughout all the systems of the body.