Take your Caesar salad to the next level with our craveable Vegan Jerk Caesar Salad! This recipe is a beautiful marriage of two of our favorites: Jamaican jerk chicken and Caesar salad. It’s bound to be your new favorite salad recipe!
Chicken Caesar salad is a classic, so we thought why not do a Caribbean-inspired chicken Caesar using vegan jerk-slathered chicken tenders? We added collard greens to the traditional salad base of romaine. This is a nod to Jamaican Callaloo, which uses a native green in the amaranth family. Fresh calalloo is hard to find where we live, and collard greens make a good substitute. A citrusy mango salsa cuts through the heat and saltiness from the Caesar dressing and jerk, while plantain chips add sweet crunch.
Jump to:
🥗 WHAT IS CAESAR SALAD?
Did you know that the classic Caesar salad isn’t just non-vegan, it’s also non-vegetarian? It is true, friends! Why? Anchovies.
The Caesar salad is a 1924 invention of Caesar Cardini, a San Diego-based restauranteur who opened an eponymous restaurant in Tijuana, Mexico to avoid Prohibition-era restrictions. His Tijuana restaurant was the birthplace of the Caesar salad. Cardini’s original dressing contained raw garlic, raw egg, Worcestershire sauce (which contains anchovies), Parmesan cheese, olive oil, vinegar, and black pepper. Modern day iterations add anchovy filets to the mix. Mayonnaise is basically an emulsion of eggs, oil and an acid, so Caesar dressing is essentially a flavored mayonnaise. Romaine lettuce, croutons and more Parmesan complete the Caesar salad package.
Our vegan Caesar dressing is a lighter take on the traditional recipe. We trade dijon mustard for egg. Dijon mustard, like eggs, are natural emulsifying agents that stabilize delicious edible suspensions like oil-and-vinegar dressings. We also use a vegan Worcestershire sauce. In addition, we add minced capers and their brining juice to the mix to emulate the seafood flavor of anchovies, and we brighten things up with a combination of lemon juice and zest. We nix the Parm in our dressing, but don’t worry; we add plenty of vegan Parm to our salad!
🇯🇲 WHAT IS JERK?
Jerk traditionally refers to a complexly marinated meat that’s cooked low-and-slow over a fire or grill. Jerk seasoning comes in the form of a dry rub or wet marinade, and its primary ingredients include allspice and Scotch bonnet peppers. Jerk is probably a marriage of West African seasoning methods with Taíno cooking techniques. After the Spanish got the heave-ho from Jamaica by the British, they emancipated their African slaves. These newly freed slaves fled to the mountains to escape re-enslavement by the British. They became known as the Maroons, and their commingling with the remaining Tainos led to the absolute fire that is Jamaican jerk.
Jerk chicken is one of the most loved dishes in Jamaica. We coat pre-made vegan chicken tenders in a wet jerk seasoning-and-oil mixture before air frying them. These vegan jerk chicken tenders are the star of our Caesar salad show!
📝 INGREDIENTS
For the Caesar dressing:
- Red wine vinegar: A classic Caesar dressing ingredient that adds a sharp punch of acidity.
- Extra virgin olive oil: A classic Caesar dressing ingredient that has fruity, herbal notes.
- Dijon mustard: A delicious emulsifying agent stand-in for the eggs in a traditional Caesar dressing. Oil and water don’t mix, except in the presence of emulsifying agents like dijon mustard and eggs. The finely ground seeds in dijon mustard are surrounded by proteins and polysaccharides that are highly effective at stabilizing emulsions. Eggs contain similar-acting proteins, but obviously aren’t vegan! Whole grain mustards make better emulsifiers for this reason.
- Minced garlic: A spicy classic Caesar dressing ingredients.
- Vegan Worcestershire sauce: Another classic Caesar dressing ingredient that adds a layer of complexity and savoriness. Worcestershire sauce traditionally contains anchovies. We bought our vegan version online. You can substitute soy sauce or tamari instead.
- Capers and their brining juice: Mimic the seafood flavor of anchovies in a traditional Caesar dressing.
- Lemon juice and zest: Brighten up the flavor profile of our dressing.
For the vegan jerk chicken:
- Jerk seasoning: We use a wet seasoning. Our favorite brands are Grace’s and Walkerswood. We are able to find these brands at our local grocery stores, such as Kroger or HEB. But otherwise, you can find them in a Caribbean grocery store or online.
- Olive oil: Thins out the jerk seasoning to make it easier to brush onto the chicken tenders. Olive oil also acts as a flavor enhancer and allows the chicken tenders to crisp up more easily after brushing on a wet seasoning.
- Vegan chicken tenders: We use one pound of vegan chicken tenders. For this recipe, we use the the Beyond Meat brand.
For the salad:
- Romaine: The classic base of a Caesar salad.
- Collards greens: This a nod to Jamaican Callaloo. Callaloo is a native green in the amaranth family. Fresh calalloo is hard to find where we live, and collard greens make a good substitute. Collard greens have a mildly bitter, earthy flavor, which works well with the fresh crispness of romaine.
- Vegan parmesan cheese: Another classic ingredient in a traditional Caesar salad that adds cheesy, salty nuttiness.
For the mango salsa:
- Mango salsa: This mango salsa salsa conjures island dreams and cuts the salty spiciness of the Caesar dressing and jerk with sweetness. You get sweetness from the mango, balanced by the savoriness of onion and tartness of lime. Cilantro heightens citrus flavors of mango and lime.
🔪 STEP-BY-STEP INSTRUCTIONS
***Check out our recipe video below!***
- Make the Caesar dressing: Combine the minced garlic, dijon mustard, vegan Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice, lemon zest and red wine vinegar in a bowl. Begin whisking these ingredients and then slowly drizzle in the olive oil, while continuing to whisk. Then season with salt and freshly cracked black pepper.
- Cook the vegan chicken tenders: Mix together a one-to-one ratio of jerk seasoning and olive oil in a bowl. Brush the frozen vegan chicken tenders on both sides with the jerk mixture and air fry them, flipping them at the halfway point. You can also bake the chicken tenders if you don’t have an air fryer (see recipe).
- Make the mango salsa: Combine the diced mango, diced red onion, chopped cilantro and diced bell pepper in a bowl. Squeeze lime juice over the mixture and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.
- Assemble the salad: In a large salad bowl, toss together the sliced romaine and collard greens. Pour over the Caesar dressing, add the vegan Parmesan and toss to coat. Top with jerk chicken tenders, mango salsa and plantain chips.
❤️ WHY YOU’LL LOVE THIS RECIPE
- Savory
- Spicy
- Sweet
- Complex
DID YOU MAKE OUR VEGAN JERK CAESAR SALAD?
Did you make this recipe? We’d love to hear about it! Please comment and leave a 5-star🌟 rating below. Share your dish with us on Instagram and tag us @plantbased.passport. We would love to seeing your delicious creations! Still hungry? Follow us on Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and Pinterest for more global vegan recipes and travel tips!🍴✈️
💕 MORE SALAD RECIPES YOU’LL LOVE
👩🏽🍳 RECIPE
VEGAN JERK CAESAR SALAD
Ingredients
For the vegan Caesar dressing:
- 4 cloves of garlic minced
- 1 tablespoon dijon mustard
- 1 ½ teaspoon vegan Worcestershire sauce or substitute soy sauce or tamari
- 1 ½ tablespoon lemon juice
- ½ teaspoon lemon zest
- 2 teaspoon red wine vinegar
- ½ cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tablespoon capers finely minced
- 1 tablespoon caper brining liquid
- ¾ teaspoon salt or to taste
- ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper or to taste
For the vegan chicken tenders:
- 1 pound of frozen vegan chicken tenders We used the Beyond Meat brand
- 2 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 2 tablespoon jerk seasoning We used the Grace’s brand but also love Walkerswood
For the salad:
- 16 ounces romaine lettuce about 3 small heads, sliced
- 4 ounces collard greens thoroughly washed, stems removed, and thinly sliced
- ½ cup vegan Parmesan cheese We used the Follow Your Heart brand
- Plantain chips
For the mango salsa:
- 1 mango diced finely
- ¼ cup red onion diced finely
- 2 tablespoon cilantro chopped
- 4 mini bell peppers or ½ a full-size red bell pepper diced finely
- Juice of 1 lime
- ¼ teaspoon salt or to taste
- ⅛ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- Make the Caesar dressing: Combine the minced garlic, dijon mustard, vegan Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice, lemon zest and red wine vinegar in a bowl. Begin whisking these ingredients and then slowly drizzle in the olive oil, while continuing to whisk. Then season with salt and freshly cracked black pepper.
- Cook the vegan chicken tenders: Mix together 2 tablespoon jerk seasoning with 2 tablespoon olive oil in a bowl. Brush the frozen vegan chicken tenders on both sides with the jerk mixture. Air fry them according to package instructions, plus an 8 additional minutes, flipping them at the halfway point. We used the Beyond Meat brand, which called for air frying at 360 degrees Fahrenheit for 5 minutes. So we cooked our chicken tenders for 14 total minutes, flipping the tenders at the 7-minute mark.
- Make the mango salsa: Combine the diced mango, diced red onion, chopped cilantro and diced bell pepper in a bowl. Squeeze lime juice over the mixture and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste.
- Assemble the salad: In a large salad bowl, toss together the sliced romaine and collard greens. Pour over the Caesar dressing, add the vegan Parmesan and toss to coat. Top with jerk chicken tenders, mango salsa and plantain chips. Enjoy!
Notes
- If you don’t have an air fryer, you can also bake your vegan chicken tenders according to package instructions, plus an additional 8-12 minutes.
Jerk seasoning is a lifestyle. It went so well with the caesar dressing.
Spice me up then. I love jerk on everythang.