Kale Caesar with Chickpea Croutons

This is my lightened up take on the classic.  When I have busy weeks at work, I like to round out this meal with chopped organic rotisserie chicken and cubed avocado.  This is  a great addition to your weekly meal prep or can be doubled and made for a potluck!

What you need:

• 1 head of organic kale-dinosaur or lacinato

• 1 head of organic romaine lettuce

• 1/2 pint organic grape/cherry tomatoes

• 1 can of organic chickpeas-drained/rinsed

• 1 tsp paprika

• 1/2 tsp sea salt

• 1/2 tsp garlic powder

• ~1 T avocado oil

• For the dressing:

  • 1/2 cup raw cashews-soak overnight or for an hour in hot water

  • 1/4 cup water

  • 2 T olive oil

  • squeeze of half a lemon

  • 1/2 T dijon mustard

  • 1-2 cloves garlic minched

  • 1/2 T gluten free Worchestershire sauce

  • salt and pepper to taste

• optional: nutritional yeast

How you do it:

1. Preheat oven to 400; dry off chickpeas and toss in avocado oil and seasonings

2. Spread chickpeas on a cookie sheet and roast for ~25-30 minutes; you may want to toss them around halfway through cooking; remove once golden and crispy (they continue to cook a bit once removed out of the oven)

3. To make the dressing: drain cashews and add them into a blender with all other dressing ingredients; blend until smooth

4. Wash and dry lettuce/kale; destem kale leaves and chop all greens-place in a large bowl

5. Wash and chop tomatoes into halves-add to bowl

6. Toss dressing well all over greens and tomatoes

7. Layer chickpea “croutons” over dressed salad and top generously with nutritional yeast, serve!

Dressing recipe adapted from oh she glows

Tip: Avocado oil and coconut oil should be used for roasting and high temperature cooking vs. olive oil. Olive oil has a low smoke point meaning that it is at its burning point much sooner than other oils and becomes a fat that is not longer healthy for us-use olive oil as a “finishing oil” topped over cooked veggies or added to salads:)

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