This is one of those dishes that are much tastier than their original version. We all know and love Caesar’s salad! In its healthy version, however, croutons are replaced by delicious chickpea croutons which can also be consumed on their own as snacks. Mayonnaise sauce has been replaced by a very light and flavoursome tahini sauce and lemon sauce, and chicken is replaced by sliced avocado. If you want, you can replace lettuce with kale to further increase the nutritional value of this salad. You can also easily skip anchovies in the sauce, although I think they help give it its characteristic flavour. Its cheesy flavour is owed to nutritional yeast, so if you don’t have it, I would suggest that you visit an organic shop of your neighbourhood to get it.
Ingredients for 4 people
– 1 lettuce cut in smaller pieces
– 1 avocado
– 1 handful of walnuts
– 1 handful of pumpkin seeds
For the chickpea croutons
– 400gr boiled chickpeas
– 1 tablespon of nutritious yeast
– 1 tsp of garlic powder
– Salt and pepper
For the sauce
– 2 spoons of tahini
– ¼ cup olive oil
– 2 spoons of nutritional yeast
– 1 clove of garlic
– 1 tin of anchovies (optional)
– Juice of 1 lemon
– 1 tsp of mustard
– ¼ cup hot water
Preparation
– Put greaseproof paper on a tray and place the chickpeas after sprinkling them with nutritional yeast, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Mix the ingredients and bake at 180 degrees for about 35 minutes until the chickpeas turn rosy. In between, take them out of the oven and stir with a spoon to spread the chickpeas so they are cooked on the other side as well.
– Put all sauce ingredients in a food processor or multi and blend well adding some warm water until the sauce reaches the desired frequency (it must be sufficiently thin)
– Chop the lettuce or kale, cut the avocado in cubes, add the pumpkin seeds, walnuts and chickpea croutons and pour the sauce, stirring.