Caesar Salad Dressing

When I was a kid I loved Caesar salad dressing. But ignorance is bliss because shortly after becoming a vegetarian my mom informed me that my beloved salad was chock full of anchovies. It's probably for the best that I didn't know that until after I already decided not to eat animals because the idea of eating blended fish has never really sat well with me. As I was making this the other day and tasting it, trying to tweak the recipe to get it just right, I realized that I have forgotten precisely what Caesar dressing tastes like! I found this quite amusing but my mom and Aaron confirmed that this does in fact taste like Caesar dressing. Regardless, it is tasty. Don't let the long list of ingredients scare you - they just all go in the blender. I have tried to arrange the ingredients so that you dirty the least amount of measuring spoons possible...

Caesar Salad Dressing (makes 1 1/2 cups)

1 cup raw cashews, soaked in water for a few hours
2 cloves garlic
Juice of 1/2 lemon
3/8 tsp. sea salt
1/8 tsp. onion powder
1/8 tsp. garlic powder
1/8 tsp. ground black pepper
1/8 tsp. ground ginger
1/4 tsp brown sugar

1 Tbls. nutritional yeast

1/2 Tbls. white miso

1 tsp. dijon mustard

1/2 Tbls. Bragg's liquid aminos/tamari/soy sauce

1/2 Tbls. seasoned rice vinegar

1 Tbls. apple cider vinegar

2 1/2 Tbls. white vinegar
1/8 tsp. liquid smoke
1/4 cup water

Drain and rinse the cashews. Blend all of the ingredients together until smooth and toss with your salad.

This is what my kitchen looked like while trying to make this recipe...