caesar

Hello hello – it’s been a while!

I hope you’ll excuse my absence. {Insert sheepish face here.} Sometimes the summer weather just ruins all your cookin’ plans, ya know? Like, you really wanted to roast pans upon pans of veggies, then you realized that you could probably roast them on the sidewalk because it is SO HOT OUT and you have no business adding to that heat by turning on the oven. So instead you order a glass of sauvignon blanc on a restaurant patio and leave all those veggies hangin.

I hope I’m not the only one who has been slacking on the cooking front to enjoy the summer weather. It is so worth it! Those roasted veggies can SO wait til fall… and in the meantime, that bottle of white wine is calling your name. It’s nothing to be ashamed of. In fact, I’m encouraging it with quick and easy meals like this!

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Vegan Caesar Panzanella

I think we should celebrate springtime today.

To my friends in the Northeast still caught in the polar vortex, I apologize. Here in Utah, the birds are chirping, the crocuses are blooming, and I’m starting to feel like I should be spending time outside instead of huddled in front of the space heater wearing a robe and a hat.

Daylight savings seems to mark the beginning of spring here. It’s pretty lovely, even though I dread “springing forward” past an hour of sleep. I can hardly believe the sun doesn’t set until 7:30 tonight! That’s a guarantee that I won’t be leaving work in the dark. The mornings are a different story… back to running with my uber-dorky headlight on. But even that won’t last for long.

I hope it’s nice and warm and sunny where you are, too. Otherwise you might be getting mad. Because I thought we could celebrate the milder weather with a fresh springtime salad today.

Vegan Caesar Panzanella

I recently made a vegan Caesar dressing for the first time, and well, it pretty much blew Nate and me away. It tastes different from non-vegan Caesar, but in the same way that any homemade dressing will taste different from store-bought. I honestly don’t think you’d know it was vegan (unless you eat a lot of tahini, in which case you might be able to pick out the tahini flavor). I was afraid to tell Nate (tahini hater numero uno) what it’s made of when he asked, but he wasn’t scared off, which is really saying something. He requests it regularly, and I’ve been finding an excuse to eat it on top of everything, from salad to pasta to roasted veggies. I have to say that this panzanella is probably this dressing’s highest and best use, though.

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Chickpea Caesar Salad Wraps

Vegan Caesar Panzanella

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