[ECO]Can Ceasar Salad be Vegan?

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Can Caesar salad be vegan?

Caesar salad is on the list as being one of the world’s most famous salads. It’s featured in almost every restaurant menu, and you can buy it in bottles or easily make it from home. It can have various variations, including things like bacon bits, croutons and even anchovies. But did you know that Caesar salad is not vegan? More on that in a bit.

The famous Caesar salad was created on July 4, 1924, by an Italian immigrant chef, Caesar Cardini, in Tijuana, Baja, California. The chef ultimately created the salad by throwing random ingredients into a bowl—an egg, garlic, lemon, Parmesan cheese, and romaine leaves. The ingredients blended so well together that they have made a mark on people all around the world for the past 100 years.

Although it has the word “salad” in its name, Caesar salad isn’t necessarily vegetarian or

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. While bacon bits and even chicken were not part of the original recipe, Caesar salads are famous for having them. Anchovies (small fish) are traditionally added to Caesar dressing because they give the salad a unique umami flavour.

Caesar salads are not traditionally vegan because they contain eggs (or mayonnaise made from eggs) and parmesan cheese, both of which come from animal products. While the mayonnaise can easily be eliminated from the recipe or swapped for a vegan mayonnaise, finding an alternative for parmesan cheese is trickier.

Not only is parmesan cheese made from a cow, but it also has a high environmental footprint. This is because Parmesan cheese and other ******* cheeses are made with more milk than soft cheeses. ******* cheeses are also stored in commercial processing units for longer and use up a lot of electricity in their production. It also takes approximately 5000 litres of water to produce one kilogram of cheese. Not to mention the environmental impact cows contribute to due to their production of methane.

To address these environmental concerns for sustainable eaters and vegans, chefs around the world are creating Caesar salads without the use of animal products. Some chefs are using nutrional yeast which has a unique savory flavour that resembles cheese. It adds creaminess to hot dishes and more textures when added to cold dishes like salads.

To replace some of the other animal products in Caesar dressing, like the anchovies, some chefs are turning to seaweed to replicate the umami flavour. Bacon bits can be replaced with vegan bacon, and chicken can be replaced with tofu. To replace the egg or mayonnaise ingredients, chefs are choosing cashews as a sustainable alternative. Raw and soaked cashews, ground to a very smooth cream, have properties similar to whipped egg yolks, which offer that rich texture we see in traditional Caesar salads.

Food companies have also introduced bottles of vegan Caesar salad dressings made with non-animal alternatives like tofu and hemp seeds. Vegan Caesar salad has also become one of this summer’s TikTok Food Trends.

Like most things in life, they have to adapt with the times in order to survive. While Caesar salads have been around for 100 years, its ingredients don’t necessarily fit it in with the needs of our society.  The demand for animal-free food products has shifted over the years, with more alternatives becoming increasingly available. In the US, the

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for plant based foods in 2023 was worth $8.1 billion.

It is encouraging to see restaurants adapt to these demands and make their menus more inclusive to vegans and vegetarians. Hopefully, these adaptations will mean that Caesar salad will be around for one hundred more years.

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