Sunflower Caesar Salad | Food Wishes

Hello, this is Chef John from foodwishes.com with sunflower Caesar. That's right, we're making a Caesar salad with a flower so useful and so beautiful that they actually named the sun after it. And did this come out as good or better than a traditional Caesar? Well, I will let you know later. But before I get to the results, let me show you how to put this dressing together. Starting with some sunflower seeds or kernels to be more accurate since they're out of the show. And in the original vegan Caesar dressing recipe, which this is based on, we would be using the raw ones that we'd soak overnight, which give a more subtle flavor and creamier texture, but I decided to go for more flavor, and I was fine with having a less smooth texture. But either way, we'll add those to a blender along with a fresh garlic clove. And I only used one, but I kind of wished I'd used two. And then we'll also want to add some capers, followed by a nice big spoon of Dijon mustard for some sharpness and acidity. Speaking of which, we will also add some freshlysqueezed lemon juice. And then we'll follow that with our salty elements in the form of soy sauce. And of course, some Wisher sauce. And then even though I'm not adding egg or anchovi to keep this sort of vegan, I cannot eat a Caesar salad without parmesan cheese involved. So, I'm tossing in some parmesano reano. And I make no apologies. And then we'll finish this up with a whole bunch of freshly ground black pepper as well as some vegetable oil. And of course, I'm using sunflower, but any neutral flavored oil will do. And then last but not least, we'll add a nice big splash of cold fresh water. And once everything's in, we will blend that on high speed until it's fairly smooth. And by the way, if you wanted this smoother, besides using the raw soaked sunflower kernels, you would simply double the recipe so there's more to blend. Okay, when you're doing a very small amount like this, it never gets quite as smooth. But having said that, even though it doesn't look super smooth, I thought the texture was fine. And what we want to do at this point is definitely give it a taste and adjust if need be. And I decided this needed another pinch of salt, plus one more generous grind of black pepper. So, I added that in and gave it a final stir and a final taste. And while it was definitely lighter and not as bold in flavor, I was very pleased with the taste since it was very Caesar-like. But like almost all salad dressings, once we make them, we want to wrap them up and pop them in the fridge for a few hours just to give the flavors time to develop. So, that's what I did. And once I was ready to build my Caesar, I grabbed an appropriate platter and I started placing some of the smaller, pointier Roma leaves around the outside, around the outside, around the outside. And then as far as the salad itself, I went with a combination of hearts of Roma as well as some little gem, which is a cross between Roma and butter lettuce. Then because we're calling this a sunflower Caesar, I also toss in a nice big handful of sunflower sprouts. And then what we'll do is grab our dressing, which has hopefully been sitting in the fridge for at least a couple hours. And actually, overnight is even better, but either way, we'll spoon a generous amount in. Then we'll mix everything together until it's well coated. And the best tool for this, if you're alone, would be a nice clean bare hand. But if people are watching, maybe go with some tongs or throw on a glove. But no matter how you do it, once this is dressed, we'll go ahead and transfer it onto our platter. piling it up in the center of our beautiful Roma ring, which by the way, we did not dress. So, that's one of the reasons you want to use a generous amount of dressing in the salad. So, there's also enough to coat that. And then, as far as garnishes go, I'm going to scatter over a few more of our roasted sunflower kernels, followed by a nice big handful of crispy croutons, which was just cube French bread that I fried in some olive oil. Oh, and pro tip. When you're doing that, if you sprinkle in a little bit of smoked paprika, not only does it give it a nice flavor, but it gives it a beautiful deep kind of orange, rusty brown color. And then after that, I decided to scatter over a few more undressed sunflower sprouts. And then besides the sprouts and the kernels and the oil we used in the dressing, you can also, if you want, eat the petals of the flower, which I'm going to pluck and place as one final touch. And no, those don't have much of a flavor, but the subtle flavor they do have is very pleasant. And obviously scattering over these petals is optional. I mean, when it comes to a Caesar, you are after all the brutus of how much tufas, but I actually think it's a really nice touch. And that's it. Our sunflower Caesar is ready to enjoy. And I was certainly happy with how this looked. And my first impressions of the dressing were positive, but I wanted to reserve judgment until I was eating everything together. So, I served some up and added some extra dressing on top since, according to me, if your Caesar is not overdressed, it's underdressed. And then I added a few more petals to the top, which we can tear into smaller pieces for something a little more delicate. And then I finished up with some more croutons and one more scattering of the kernels. And then I grabbed a fork and went in for the official taste. And that, my friends, really was a very nice salad with a very interesting, tasty dressing. But the problem for me was it made me want a real actual Caesar. Okay, if you never had a Caesar before, I believe you would think this was really, really good. But unfortunately, that's not me. So to summarize, was this a really good salad? And was this a really good dressing? Well, yes and yes. But would I make it again instead of a Caesar? Probably not. But if I was entertaining some vegan friends, which I have a lot of, allegedly. Would I leave out the cheese and substitute some kind of vegan option and serve this to them? Absolutely. And if that's the situation you find yourself in, then I really do hope you give this a try soon. So, please follow the links below for the ingredient amounts, a printable written recipe, and much more info as usual. And as always, enjoy.