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This Kale Caesar Salad is one of my favorite ways to serve kale. It’s tossed in a delicious vegan Caesar salad dressing, that gets its creaminess from tahini, and it couldn’t be easier!
Why Use Kale in a Caesar salad?
Kale is a nutritional powerhouse loaded with iron, vitamin K, and antioxidants, but its chewy texture and dark-leafy-green-flavor can sometimes be a bit intimidating.
That’s why I’m so excited to share this vegan Kale Caesar Salad, because it’s making me crave kale on a near-daily basis.
The Easiest Caesar Salad Dressing (No Eggs!)
This untraditional Caesar dressing gets its creaminess from raw tahini, a paste made of ground raw sesame seeds (in most cases, no oil is added).
Sesame seeds are naturally high in calcium, and their mild flavor blends seamlessly into this garlicky dressing. Paired with fresh garlic, a splash of lemon juice, and a hefty pinch of salt and pepper, this dressing can be stirred together in minutes and compliments the flavor of raw kale perfectly.
Making Chickpea “Croutons”
This salad gets another nutritional upgrade by using garlic roasted chickpeas as a grain-free swap for croutons. Chickpeas, also called garbanzo beans, are packed with plant-based protein and fiber, which can help keep your blood sugar levels stable and aid in weight loss.
Chickpeas, like many other pulses, may also help balance cholesterol levels and protect again heart disease, while providing essential nutrients like iron, zinc, folate, and B vitamins.
The chickpeas take 45 minutes to roast to crispy perfection, they take only a few minutes of hands-on preparation so you won’t have to spend too much time in your kitchen. Just toss in a bit of olive oil and garlic, pour them into a pan, and bake!
You can make them as soft or as crunchy as you like. (Start checking on them around the 30-minute mark if you don’t want them to be too crisp.)
Ingredients
Garlic Roasted Chickpeas
- 1 1/2 cups cooked chickpeas (or one 15-ounce can, drained)
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 clove garlic (minced)
- 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
Kale Caesar Salad
- 1/4 cup raw tahini
- 4 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 1/4 cup water
- 2 cloves garlic (minced)
- 1/2 teaspoon spicy brown mustard
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- freshly ground black pepper
- 1 pound lacinato kale (about 6 cups)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400ºF. To prepare the Garlic Roasted Chickpeas, toss the cooked chickpeas with olive oil, garlic, and salt in a large bowl, then pour them into a rimmed baking sheet. Arrange them into a single layer, then bake until crisp, about 30 to 40 minutes, shaking the pan halfway through the cooking cycle.
- While the chickpeas are baking, prepare the dressing. Stir together the tahini, lemon juice, water, garlic, mustard, salt, and freshly ground black pepper to taste. Stir until smooth and adjust any seasonings as you like.
- To assemble the salad, remove the tough stems from the kale leaves, and cut the kale into small pieces. Toss the leaves with the dressing and let them marinate while you wait for the chickpeas to be done.
- When the chickpeas are done roasting, remove the pan from the oven and let them cool for 10 minutes. Sprinkle them generously over the kale salad and serve. Leftovers can be stored separately in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days. Keep in mind that roasted chickpeas don't have the best texture when chilled, so if you want to make this in advance, you may want to use plain drained and rinsed canned chickpeas, instead.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically generated using an online nutrition calculator, and is an estimate, not a guarantee. For more accurate results, be sure to check the labels on your ingredients at home.
For more pulse-based recipes, you might enjoy:
- Vegan Flourless Black Bean Brownies
- Lentil Potluck Salad
- Lentil, Kale & Quinoa Stew
- Instant Pot Red Lentil Curry
- Black Bean & Sweet Potato Enchiladas
- Black Bean Gingerbread Bars
- White Bean Maple Pecan Blondies
Unbelievable how this tastes like Caesar dressing! The dressing was super thick so I added a fair amount of water to thin it enough to coat the kale. I also used a bag of store kale that was prewashed and cut, not lacinato but another variety and it worked well.
Made this for lunch and it was phenomenal. The dressing makes this taste so much better. I added a bit of nutritional yeast to it, but honestly I felt that it was fine leaving it out too. Delicious!
This is soooo good. Love the dressing!
LOVED this and my husband loved it too. I made two changes — I added a cup of cooked quinoa to the salad and I added vegan worchestershire (about 1tbsp) to the dressing. I added the dressing to the salad maybe 3 hours before dinner and it was PERFECT once we sat down for it. Thanks so much!!
Hi Megan–I keep making recipes from your site and thinking “How do those few ingredients add up to something so delicious??” This is another one! The dressing is absolutely delicious and the roasted garbanzos really hit the spot.
The one thing I would recommend is letting the kale marinate in the dressing overnight, it improves the texture of the kale and makes the salad next-level delicious.
Thanks for the amazing recipes!
I love this recipe! We like to mix it up and add more toppings like sweet potato, walnuts, and dried cranberries.
But every time I make it, the tahini dressing seizes up when I add the lemon juice… I’ve tried fresh and bottled lemon. It’s still delicious, but I want to figure out how to get smooth dressing! Not a paste lol
I think the trick is to keep adding water, just a tiny bit at a time, to the dressing until it smooths out again. And use a whisk to stir it if you can, because that speeds things along.