Nut-Free Caesar Salad Dressing

Ceaser salad is one of those iconic dishes that are available pretty much everywhere. I've often seen it on the weirdest of places, like at a chinese restaurant of all places. It has become one of the most common salads to be found and can be made in a large variety of ways.

One of these ways is the gourmet raw vegan way, usually filled with cashews. The problem is, cashews and me don't have the best of relationships. They tend to like getting me a little more weighty. While working at a raw vegan restaurant, these pesky things were everywhere.

Many people also tend to avoid nuts for many reasons: they follow a low fat vegan diet, they have allergies, they aren't actually raw... I just tend to avoid nuts because they don't digest that well and I like to keep a *generally* low fat diet. This recipe is also raw if you use fresh coconut!

While in Costa Rica, we had ample access to fresh coconuts, I would harvest the meat from them almost every week and would freeze most of later use. I made a TON of curries but I really wanted to make some fun and interesting raw recipes.

This recipe came out so well, it became a staple, where there was pretty much always a jar sitting in the fridge. If you don;t have access to fresh coconuts, or you don;t really want to go through that hassle, you *might* be able to use dried coconut that has been soaked overnight to 24 hours with a high powered blender. I can't guarantee anything though.

Coconut Caesar Dressing

Ingredients:

- 2 cups coconut meat

- Water, as needed

- 2 tbsp capers

- 2 lemons, juiced (about 5 tbsp)

- 1/4 cup noni juice OR 1/2 cup nutritionnal yeast

- 1 tbsp dijon mustard (opt)

- 1 tbsp pepper

- Salt, to taste (opt)

In a high powered blender, blend the coconut meat and water (start with 1 cup and go from there) until very smooth. 

Add in the rest of the ingredients and blend until well incorporated.

Refrigerate until ready to serve. It sets in the fridge and is even better the next day.

Enjoy!